Connecting the dots
by WriterKos
Summary: The past is mad at Buchanan. And it wants to get even. Set sometime in Season 7. Major crossover with Criminal Minds. Part of the Joy Buchanan series. Set after Honor Bound. FINAL CHAPTER IS UP!
1. Searching

_**Connecting the dots**_ – the past is mad at Buchanan. And it wants to get even. Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc. Major crossover with Criminal Minds.

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_Crime butchers innocence to secure a throne, and innocence struggles with all its might against the attempts of crime.__-__**Maximilien Robespierre**_

_**Searching.**_

Under the cover of darkness, the car drove through the woods on the dirt road towards the dilapidated house deep in the forest. The car stops and a man jumps out of it. He collects some bags from the boot and goes to the front door. He leaves the car keys on the side table, and goes in the direction of a door on the end of the corridor.

He opens the door and goes down the basement and turns on the light. A veritable torture chamber can be seen down there, with hooks hanging from the walls to whips, knives and other things too disgusting to be described. He smiles at his equipment, turns off the light and returns to the living room upstairs.

He walks to the table, where he carefully puts gloves on and writes a note on a piece of paper. He delicately puts it in an envelope which he lays inside a cardboard box open on his table. He duct tapes it shut, sits down and smiles.

The preparation steps are all done, now it is time to start the game again. It is time to find the Servant.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Mom, Aunt Joy sent me my birthday gift," shouts Steffy Buchanan to her mom, holding a box in her hand. It just arrived with the morning post. She shakes it and hears something hitting the walls of the cardboard box.

"Don't shake it, you might break it," says her mother, Faith Buchanan, approaching her and getting the box out of her hands. She puts it on the table carefully, "Have you done all your homework for school today?" she wants to know, looking for a letter opener on the writing desk. The twelve year old nods, making her long straight hair bob. "I did, now may I have the honor?" she stretches out her hand to her mother, asking for the letter opener.

Faith looks at her daughter, and sees the same stubbornness that is part of the clan Buchanan, as well as the same mischievousness that she has always seen in her older brothers. At 39, she was a good looking woman who had a demanding career as an FBI agent in the white collar crimes section. Somehow she juggled the professional career with a family life.

But that was an inherited gift, as her mother also worked part-time as weapon design engineer for a subcontractor of the US Air Force, at the same time that she lorded it over a house with nine children and a retired-colonel-turned-reverend husband.

She finds the letter opener, looks at her oldest child and puts it in her hand.

"You see it, and immediately send Joy a very long e-mail saying thanks for the nice gift, regardless of what it is, and for the cake she is making for you on Saturday."

"Ok mom," she says cutting the first tape.

"Don't you forget it, young lady."

"Mom," says Steffy, in an exasperated tone only teenagers can use perfectly.

"Go" she shoos her. Faith walks out of the dining room and walks towards the kitchen, where her coffee is getting cold.

She never makes it through the door.

The terrified screams pierced the silence of the morning, resulting in hurried sounds of footsteps towards the dining room.

"What's wrong?" James Wilson, Faith's husband, wants to know. He finds Faith holding their hysterical daughter, who is shouting a heart piercing cry, in her arms. He looks around and there is only a semi opened box on the dining table.

"Mom?" little Danny, in his PJs, holding his father's legs, asks.

"Take the baby away from here!" shouts Faith with tears in her eyes, gathering her daughter in her arms and bringing her to the living room.

Steffy is still screaming.

"No mamma, no mama, it is not true mama, please," she is sobbing now restlessly; Faith lays her daughter in the sofa, gets the telephone and starts dialing. James has Danny in his arms, looking at his wife, silently questioningly.

She has hardcore steel in her eyes when she looks at him, the same he had seen in her face when she is hunting down the sleaziest thieves and crooks.

"FBI, Agent Williams speaking."

"I need to speak with Aaron Hotchner, please."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Somewhere in the Hoover Building, the telephone starts ringing.

"Agent Hotchner speaking."

"Agent Faith Buchanan for you sir."

"Ok"

A faint click.

"Faith,"

"Hotch, it's Joy." She says without greeting him, "Something happened to her."

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	2. Missing

_**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc. Major crossover with Criminal Minds.**_

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___**Missing**_

_Never be unreachable – __**Gibbs' rule number 10.**_

The day started normally in NCIS, the agents arrived and slowly booted up their computers, each sipping their own coffees just waiting for the new day to start. There was a glaring absence though.

"Buchanan is late," says DiNozzo stating the obvious.

"Maybe she overslept today." Says Ziva.

"Are you tiring our little Probette, Probie?

"I don't know what you are talking about Tony."

"Come on, you are closer than flesh and bones. Starky and Huch, Tom and Jerry. Fred and Ginger. Tell me, have you made her too tired yesterday?"

"I don't know what you are talking about," he said testily.

"She visits you an awful lot." Says Ziva.

"She likes cooking. And she always cooks too much for only one person."

"Ohhh she cooks for you McGeek. So, what does she taste like?" McGee looks angrily at Tony, who gets a Gibbs slap. Hard.

"None of your business, DiNozzo," says Gibbs, going to his desk and leaving his coffee on it.

He looks at McGee. "Where is she?"

"I don't know, boss," he answers, concerned.

"Call her,"

"I already did."

Gibbs looks at him.

"Fifteen times," confesses McGee, looking at his cell with a frown on his face.

Gibbs feels a flutteringin his gut. "Have you tried to trace her number yet?" McGee minimizes one of his screens, "I'm doing it right now." A result pings on McGee's screen and Gibbs goes around the desk over his shoulder.

"That can't be."

"What?" asks Ziva. She is starting to feel the tension irradiating from both men.

"It is saying that it is on the parking lot of Wallmart supermarket on..." he says an address close to his house. "That can't be right."

"Why?" asks DiNozzo.

"Because she said she would go to the supermarket yesterday evening." He pauses and he sees the serious faces of Gibbs, Tony and Ziva looking at him. "It is her niece's twelfth birthday on Saturday, and she promised to make the cake."

"And she was going there yesterday evening, are you sure?" asks Gibbs.

"Yes, she needed the ingredients to make the cake this evening when she get home." Gibbs looks at the ceiling; his guts are twisting, warning him about something he can't define.

"DiNozzo, David, go to the supermarket. Check if she is still there, or if her cell phone is still there. McGee, keep trying to reach her."

He goes to the phone and starts dialing "Is the director in?" he waits for the secretary to connect him. Tony and Ziva have their backpacks on their hands.

"Do you think something happened to her, Gibbs?" Ziva voices everyone's fears.

He looks at his agents in a concerned manner, noticing the barely hidden fear in his junior agent's eyes. "She did warn me that she was trained to catch monsters. We don't know what type of lunatics she met before working with us."

"Agent Gibbs," says Vance. Gibbs covers the telephone with his hand and mouths "Go," to his agents, but before they leave the room, the elevator doors open and a group of serious looking people, leaded by a tall thin black haired man walk in their direction.

"Agent Gibbs, what is happening?"

"We are just being invaded, Leon," he says and disconnects. The tall man looks at Gibbs, shows his FBI badge. "Are you Special Agent Leroy Jetro Gibbs?" Gibbs nods.

McGee stands up and looks at the strange selection of people in front of him. Ziva and Tony are looking at them with worried eyes.

Aaron Hotchner, section chief of the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI, says, "We need to talk."

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	3. Cruising

_**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc. Major crossover with Criminal Minds.**_

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Cruising

Consciousness came back to her slowly**,** as if she was in a very deep pond struggling to reach the surface. _I was drugged_, Joy's brain provided the info. She keeps her breathing steady and tries to figure out where she is. There is a faint vibration coming from the floor where she is laying, and the faint smells of rust, gasoline and rubber filled the confined space. _Car trunk._

She gingerly tries to move her legs and arms, and find the arms tied behind her back, with very tight knots almost cutting off the circulation**.** Her legs are taped together, a little above her ankles. She won't be able to struggle free, but she has limited movement of her legs. She looks around the dark cavern and tries to find the place where the backlights are. She starts kicking it, careful of doing it only when the car drives by a noisy incoming car, and manages to kick the backlight out of place. She gets her shoes off and throws them through the open space. Once she did it with both shoes**, **she feels around with her feet and gingerly starts throwing whatever she can find out of the opening.

"Mom, did you see that?" asks a little boy, pointing to the car a couple of meters ahead of theirs.

"What, Jake?" He points to the car, where his mother sees a naked foot throwing a dirty rag out of where the break lights are supposed to be.

"Oh my God," woman says, when she finally figures out what is happening. She dials through the Bluetooth to the police.

"911"

"I think I'm witnessing a kidnapping."

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	4. Running

_**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc. Major crossover with Criminal Minds.**_

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Running

_The best way to keep a secret? Keep it to yourself. Second best? Tell one other person - if you must. There is no third best. – __**Gibbs' rule number 4.**_

Special Agent Aaron Hotchner and his team were in Director's Vance office**,** with the remaining Team Gibbs being debriefed.

"Our unsub is named Jarod Garnett, aged 42. He was a very wealthy real state agent in Orange County, until he started to develop early schizophrenia in his early thirties. He started to enter relationships and impose his psychosis on his partners. If the imaginary scenery wasn't fulfilled, he would kill them. He somehow was able to stay under the FBI radar for years, hiding the evidence of his crimes, until he saw a broadcast from the LA BAU and transferred his psychosis to the team." Explains Hotch.

"He acted on this psychosis, creating a case for the team to investigate, and waited patiently until the team was close to him and snatched two of its members. He imposed his fantasies on them, and followed the pattern of domination and subjugation," says Emily Prentiss.

"He apparently developed a very elaborated psychosis towards agent Buchanan. He firmly believes that they are meant to be together in a bondage relationship. He, being the dominant one, and she, the dominated one. He even gave her a name, defining her role," says Reid.

"What would that be?" Vance wants to know**.**

"The Servant," says Emily.

McGee's face has as a very brief fluttering of despair on it, before his professional mask comes back on.

However, both Agent Hotchner and Gibbs are able to catch it.

"Agent McGee, you recognize this term?" Hotch wants to know. Gibbs just looks at him, questioning him.

McGee looks between both team leaders, but refuses to reveal what he knows. He knew Buchanan was a very private person, and did not disclose information on her scars to anyone.

"If you know anything that might help the investigation, you better tell us."

Reid studies agent McGee, and after a few seconds, he smiles. As he does not have any qualms or natural filters on his mind or mouth, he spouts the truth.

"He has seen the scars on Buchanan's back."

"Scars?" The director wants to know**.** There was no mention of scars in the file he had on her.

**"**Scars?" Gibbs doesn't want them to know that he heard the conversation between Abby and Joy, so he pretends he has no idea what they are talking about.

"How do you know about them? You've seen them?" McGee looks at Reid**,** horrified. _She's going to kill me_, he thinks desolated.

"How do you know that?" Hotch looks at Reid with questions in his eyes. He never mentioned scars before.

Reid smiles smartly. "Because I was also engaged in a sexual relationship with Agent Buchanan, back in the day."

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Reviews are food for my soul.

a/n: Ohhh Reid and his big mouth!


	5. Meeting of Titans

_**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc. Major crossover with Criminal Minds.**_

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Meeting of Titans

There is a moment of shocked silence. Everyone is trying to absorb the information just given to them.

McGee has a horrified expression on his face.

Reid blindly interprets the silence as acquiescence to expose his thoughts.

"She is truly a fascinating person. However, I was not prepared to deal with her very complex personal background, so we mutually agreed that it would be better if we did not pursue our relationship further." He says with a smile.

McGee sees red.

"It was you." He stands up, furious. "You are the one who hurt her," he jumps at Reid but is stopped by both Gibbs and Tony, "she is not a lab rat to be studied, you…" **"**McGee!" barks Gibbs in his ear. And he stops struggling.

"What is wrong with…"asks Reid confused.

"Just shut up Reid," says Derek.

"Reid," says Hotchner touching the bridge of his nose lightly, trying to fight the migraine already blossoming in his head "is this the reason why she requested the transfer to LA?" he wants to know angrily.

"No, she said she wanted new horizons, you were there, Hotch," says Reid confused.

McGee is trying very hard to control his breathing. "Get a grip," says Gibbs to McGee and releases him. McGee fixes his eyes on Reid and says with hatred. "She said she didn't want to live under the lenses of a microscope."

The BAU team all look at Reid. "What?" Reid wants to know, confused**.**

"You profiled the profiler," says Derek, astonished.

"I didn't mean to, I just wanted to understand,"

"Reid, now is not the time or the place," says Hotchner firmly, silencing his agent. "We have to find Agent Buchanan now, preferably alive."

"How did you know she had been taken?" Gibbs wants to know**.**

"We figured out just a couple of minutes before you arrived," complements Tony.

"Because I received a box with something that shouldn't be there this morning," says a woman at the door. Vance looks at her questioningly, and sees the stranger helping an old woman in her late sixties into the room. He gets irritated at the interruption.

"This is a private meeting, I would appreciate…"

"I would appreciate if you watch your tone in my presence, young man," says the old lady firmly. She looks at Vance with eagle eyes, and he sees that, even though she has very fragile looks, there is a very intelligent mind shining behind those hazel eyes. She looks around the room and notices the tension and the clear division on the groups, NCIS at one side and BAU in the other. She walks towards Hotch and all the members from BAU who were sitting stand up.

She signals her cheek, asking for a kiss. Hotchner obliges her.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your new friends, Hotch?" her eagle eyes study the NCIS group, stopping at each member for a second.

"These are the members of Joy's new team, Mrs. Buchanan," He points to the agents, "Agent Gibbs, David, DiNozzo and McGee." She studies each one.

"Mrs. Buchanan as in …" asks Gibbs, stretching his hand to shake hers.

"I'm Joy's mother." She smiles a sweet smile, and shakes his hand. Despite her apparent frailty, Gibbs feels firmness in her hand, and he can see bright violet eyes studying him carefully.

"Mrs. Buchanan," Reid starts speaking, but is interrupted.

"Sit down Reid, and shut up. Your big mouth caused enough problems already," says Derek irritated. She looks at the profiler who looks duly chastened. She shakes her head and walks towards the director.

She sits down gingerly in the chair in front of Vance's desk, and signals for him to sit down as well.

Vance looks around the room, and at the old regal lady before him. Everyone sits down, so does he.

"Now young man, I would like to know who screwed up."

"I beg your pardon." Vance says, shocked at the gall of the woman.

"In my conversations with SECNAV, when we negotiated Joy's transfer from the FBI to NCIS, I was assured that NCIS would be a good place for her to be," she says in a saccharine voice.

"She spoke with the SECNAV**…." **mutters DiNozzo astonished. _Who is this woman? Who are these people?_

"Now I would like to know how she wasn't informed that the bastard who almost killed her last year had escaped from prison. And why no one bothered to inform anyone involved in the investigation." Her voice becomes cutting steel. "I want to know who helped him escape, and you will help me with that, or the new contract for the weapons for your glorious subs," she makes a sign with her hand "puff, becomes smoke."

"Ma'an, you can't threaten me, I'm…"

"I can and I will," she says firmly, and Vance can see that this lady is used to have all her wishes as a command, "I designed the weapons, after all. And there are several different governments abroad who would be mighty interested in the top secret military advancements. Which" she touches her forehead lightly "are all hidden in here."

"Are you blackmailing me, Mrs. Buchanan?" Vance simply can't believe he's being threatened in his own office.

"No, we Buchanans don't blackmail people. We make promises," she says with an icy smile. "I want their names and their heads on a spike by nightfall**." **She smiles thinly, and stands up.

Mrs. Buchanan looks around the room, and sees all the agents looking at her, with expressions ranging between shock, astonishment and pure mirth.

"Let's leave the director alone, he has director's things to do, and move this party elsewhere. We still have to find my daughter."

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Reviews are food for my soul.

a/n: Man, I love this old lady!


	6. Little Girl Lost

Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc. Major crossover with Criminal Minds. Finally some background story on the Clan Buchanan. How is the matriarch going to deal with Gibbs and with McGee? Just check it out.

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_**Little Girl Lost**_

_Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it. **J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire**_

_"Do you have children, Agent Gibbs?"_  
_"I had. A daughter."_  
_"Wrong answer. You have children. Your teammembers are your children. Whether you acknowledge it out loud or not, it does not change the fact that you care for them. Only a fool would choose to live in solitude when he can surround himself with family. And you, Mr. Gibbs, you are no fool." - **Margareth Buchanan to Special Agent Gibbs.**_

Both teams moved to another meeting room, where both MCRT and BAU could sit down. Mrs. Buchanan looks between the two teams, and notices the tension between them.

"What do you have?" she wants to know**.**

McGee is the first to speak. "We identified Buchanan's cell signal in the parking lot of a supermarket, we were going to send someone to check it out there when" he points to the BAU team "they arrived."

She nods and looks at Gibbs. "Go," he orders Ziva and Tony, and they leave the room.

"We issued an APB on her car as soon as we received Faith's call," says Derek Morgan. "Up until now, no hits."

"How did you find out she was missing? You never told us there in the Director's room," asks Gibbs. Hotch looks at the stranger, who has yet to say a word.

"We received a cardboard box this morning," says the stranger, and she stretches out her hand and holds the old lady's hand and squeezes**.** "Inside it was the head of the teenager my sister almost died trying to protect."

"Agent Gibbs, this is Special Agent Faith Buchanan. She is one of Buchanan's sisters working for the FBI." He nods to her politely**, **which she reciprocates.

"We sent the box to analysis already**, **but we can be sure it would have been wiped clean."

"The postage information says that it was sent from the neighbourhood post office, we are checking the video surveillance but until now, nothing."

"We need to check the evidence used to arrest him the first time, again, but we will need to start from scratch**,** as all investigators on record for this case" Hotch looks at Gibbs "are dead."

"And the only one alive is missing," completes Reid.

"We would appreciate your assistance to go through the interviews."

Gibbs nods, accepting the request.

Mrs. Buchanan considers both men for a moment, and says "I will not tolerate jurisdiction disputes on this case" she looks firmly at Hotch, "my daughter considered you family, so do I. I don't want inter agency squabbles to interfere with the investigation. Am I understood?" "Crystal Clear, ma'am." She makes a motion with her hand, dismissing him, and he stands up and leaves with the BAU team. Only Gibbs and McGee stay. They stand up to leave.

"Please stay, Agent Gibbs and…" she turns her eyes to McGee, who fights not to fidget under her gaze "McGee, isn't it?" They sit down again.

"Yes ma'am."

She stands up and sits by their side. "You may call me Maggie." She takes a seat. She looks at her old wrinkled hands for a second and look up at both men.

"What I'm about to say is classified, and no one besides some family members and the people involved know about it."

She looks at them and starts talking.

"Do you have children, Agent Gibbs?" He stares at her, and she stares back with the same intensity. He can see exactly from whom Buchanan had inherited her steel backbone and penetrating gaze. He decides to go with the truth.

"I had. A daughter." She sighs.

"Wrong answer. You have children. Your teammembers are your children**. **Whether you acknowledge it out loud or not, it does not change the fact that you care for them. Only a fool would choose to live in solitude when he can surround himself with family. And you, Mr. Gibbs," she stares at his eyes and says "you are no fool."

McGee fidgets uncomfortably. Mrs. Buchanan looks at him and he stops.

"What very few people are aware of is that, from my nine children, only five of them are my flesh and blood. The other four were adopted, either to protect them and to avoid them going into the system, or simply because they were," she struggles with words "left in our care."

"Their adoption is not a secret, what is the secret is why,"she looks in Gibbs' eyes, "they were trusted in our care."

McGee is listening curiously.

"My husband, while still in the Air Force, served in black ops. One of his colleagues was murdered and the family hunted down, leaving alive only a five month baby. If they found out the child was alive, the kid would be murdered as well, so he was adopted by us, and legally all information about his existence was erased."

"Two other children were the only survivors of a car crash where their parents, also Air Force**,** died. The general under which my husband had served before helped us to arrange the papers so we could legally add them to our clan, so they wouldn't be lost in the system," she smiles, "as in the Marines, the Air Force is a big family, we protect our children, and if necessary, our friends' children as well."

"Then," she sighs, "there is Joy."

She looks at both men.

"There were no records or any paperwork about Joy at all before she met us." Gibbs frowns at that "we were able to track her down to the Grand station in Detroit, where my husband first saw her, but there is no evidence whatsoever that she even existed before that," she says seriously.

"No birth records, no medical records,nothing. It was as if she came out of thin air or as if she was a hothouse flower, who never had any contact with the external world."

"She had received a polite education, she knew how to read and write, she knew how to set a banquet table, with all the proper forks and knives, and fold napkins as if they were origami, but the simplest things surprised her and astonished her. She had never seen a snow globe before, and was fascinated by the workings of a grandfather clock we had back home. The concept of time was completely alien for her, as she slept days and stayed awake all night.

"She was terribly afraid of being hungry, so she would hoard food under her bed for any time she might feel hungry," Maggie shakes her head, "she added a few pounds after that and had to work hard to lose them later on."

"She didn't understand why my sons could be so happy and playful, without receiving any punishment for that, and she would hide inside a laundry cupboard whenever they were too noisy."

Mrs. Buchanan looks at both agents with tears in her eyes. "She didn't understand the concept of being happy, because she had never seen happy people before."

"The skin of her back is marred by scars, made by a whip. Whoever whipped her was always careful to hit her where it would not be visible whenever she was dressed, but they were merciless and hit her again and again and again.

"According to the doctors we consulted, the whippings started probably when she was four or five years old. For a long time, she would not speak nor eat unless given express permission to do it, and did not know how to express her wishes or wants." She wipes a tear. "The doctors even suggested that she was mentally retarded, or autistic, but I refused to believe that. So did my husband."

"It took her one year before she spoke her first words to us. And another year until she stopped hoarding food under the bed, afraid of being hungry ever again."

"Then there was the Gordon's kid case," says Faith softly.

Mrs. Buchanan nods.

"What case?" McGee wants to know, curious about the information he is getting straight from the source. Mrs. Buchanan continues her story.

"There was a rash of children disappearing in the late eighties between Idaho and Montana. The FBI local office was working non-stop trying to figure out what was happening."

"One of the missing children was one of our neighbors' son, who was kidnapped from the same playground on the same day and time where I was with Joy, and Hope and little Matthew."

Mrs. Buchanan shakes her head, sadly. "I remember Joy coming in my direction, dragging Hope by her hand on one side and little Matthew's on the other. She was agitated, and did not let either child leave my sight. I thought there was something wrong with her and left." She sighs. "One hour later we found out that the little boy had been taken."

"The FBI was called, and they started questioning everyone, and when they came home to interview us I mentioned Joy's odd behavior. She didn't answer their questions, because she did not speak at that time, but one of the agents gave her paper and a pencil and asked her to draw what she had seen in the park."

She breathes deeply, trying to settle her nerves. She looks up and continues. "She drew, in detail**,** a demon, with dripping blood and huge claws and wings, hovering over the playground, holding in one of his hands heads of children. Several children. And she drew, in detail, the faces of every single child missing in the case." Gibbs is looking at her without expression in his face, but McGee has a thinking expression on his face. "Mr. Gibbs, she had no way of knowing who these children were, and nobody had given her any information about it either**." **

"What really caught the attention of the investigators, however, was the fact that, the other hand of the demon was stretched towards the playground, and hovered over Gordon's kid on the drawing."

The investigators were charmed that she could clearly see things others couldn't but we were terrified. They wanted to use her to assist in the investigation to help identify the kidnapper, but I was adamant she was too young for that.

But then, she was kidnapped as well, along with little Hope. We were frantic, and worked along the FBI to ensure that our kids came back home safe.

After two days, they were found, traumatized by their ordeal but fine. Joy bravely protected her adoptive sister, and whenever the monster tried to hurt Hope, she would attract his attention towards her. Hope came out scared, but unscathed. Joy had burn marks as testimony of her ordeal. Gordon's boy had been wounded, and two other kids had been found in critical condition, but they were alive.

_That explains the cigarette burns_, thinks McGee.

"Since that day, Hope and Joy had been inseparable, as Hope will never forget how Joy took her place in the beatings and torture."

"We requested the FBI to seal the case, need to know basis only, and I contacted my superiors in the Air Force, and any mention of it was buried forever under mountains of paperwork."

The Special Agent in Charge of the case bonded with Joy, and kept in touch with her throughout the years. He was a psychologist, and helped her to blossom and slowly come out of her shell. And when all the girls started going to the FBI, he offered to be her tutor and professor at Quantico**."** She looks up, "I knew she would become an FBI agent the moment she started to bond with Jason Gideon." She sighs again, tired. "But my biggest worry is that, up until now, we don't know who carved the word servant on her back."

Gibbs stays silent for some moments; absorbing everything he had just been told.

"You think it is possible this bastard is still out there."

"We never had any proof to the contrary," she says sadly.

She stands up, and Gibbs stretches his hand to support her.

"Thanks Mr. Gibbs," she says, patting his hand. She looks into his eyes firmly. "What I've just told you is classified information, not even your director has access to it. Do not make me regret the trust I put in you."

"No, ma'am, I won't disappoint you," he says.

She walks around Gibbs and stands before McGee, who fidgets and finally stands ramrod straight under her scrutiny, as she looks at him with her penetrating gaze. She is much like Buchanan, not mincing her words, "Are you sleeping with my daughter?" she wants to know from him, point blank.

He blushes, swallows the knot which had formed in his throat, and briefly looks at Gibbs before answering with the truth, "yes, ma'am."

She approaches him, and studies the young man before her. Tall, green eyes, with a young face but with a hard core of steel hidden by a softness that many mistook for weakness.

_My daughter always knew how to pick them_, Maggie thinks.

She turns her face and points to her cheek, asking for a kiss, in the same gesture she gave Hotch when she entered the Director's office a few hours before.

McGee looks at Gibbs, who is smirking at him, and at Faith, who is silently gesturing to him, _come on, kiss her._ He leans down, and deposits a soft kiss on her paper-like cheek, and stands again. She raises her hands and holds his head in her hands, studying his face with her penetrating gaze for some moments. Something she sees in his gaze must have satisfied her, as she releases him, nods and simply says, "You'll do," and leaves the room.

Leaving two NCIS agents speechless and a smirking FBI agent behind.

"What exactly was that?" McGee wants to know, confused.

Faith walks towards him, and explains with laughter on her voice, "That was mom's way of saying_, screw this up, and there won't be enough left of you to fit in a shoebox_." She smiles, "welcome to the family," she smirks.

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Reviews are food for my soul.

a/n: Man, I love Maggie Buchanan! She has _cojones_!


	7. Tape Watching

_**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc. Major crossover with Criminal Minds.**_

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_**Tape watching**_

The 911 call came to the police dispatch, and a police cruiser identified the car mentioned on the radio as it drove past its position on a service road in the direction of West Virginia. The police car turned on its lights, and followed the suspect's car into the night, and requested it to stop at the shoulder of the service road. As it stopped, the police officer drew his weapon and slowly approached the driver's seat.

"Get out of the car, with your hands where I can see them." The tinted windows did not allow a clear vision of the driver, but he could clearly see the broken backlight where a human foot was sticking out, moving in circles trying to call his attention.

Whoever was inside the trunk puts the foot back inside. The officer looks back to the driver's seat, and does not have time to react, as he is shot right in the middle of his forehead, dying instantaneously.

The driver steps out of the car, a tall man with a LA Lakers hat, a gun with a silencer in his hands. He walks to the officer, and shoots him again twice in the chest. He then opens the trunk and grabs the woman inside, who has duct tape on her mouth and has a goose egg on her head, by her hair.

"This time," he hisses to her, and she looks at him, blinking due to the abrupt change from darkness to light, "no one will save you, _Servant_" he stresses the last word, and shakes her, holding her by her hair, bringing a moan of pain.

He lets her go, and she falls back with a thump, as she is unable to break her fall as her hands are also immobilized. He closes the trunk, and returns to the driver seat, and leaves.

Meanwhile, the patrol camera recorded everything.

NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Boss, we got the garage tapes," says Tony as soon as he enters the bullpen, with Ziva hot on his heels. Spread out on their tables are the boxes that the BAU brought from their archives, and the FBI agents were sitting in extra chairs reviewing evidence.

Tony goes to the computer and puts the recorded DVD on it. They stand up and start watching it.

They see Buchanan's car parked in a distant spot of the garage building, which is attached to the supermarket. They wait and see her approaching the car, "here she comes," she pops up the trunk and starts putting paper bags overflowing with goods in the trunk.

"Here comes my favorite part," says Tony, and Gibbs turns to stare at him, serious, "Boss, just look at it," Gibbs turns back to the plasma, but before that gives him a slap, "ouch".

The team stops and watches Joy stop putting the things in the trunk and looking around as if seeing if there is someone around. She smiles at the empty parking lot, and starts digging in one of the paper bags, and gets two pompoms and a bright red clown nose. She smiles at the items, puts the red nose on her face, and starts to dance to an imaginary music, that only she can hear, as if she is a cheerleader, moving in choreographed steps. They can clearly see that she's singing as well.

Hotch smiles at the video, "Her niece is a cheerleader," he explains.

Tony smiles at McGee, who is looking at the video transfixed. "Did you know that she could dance like that?"

McGee shakes his head, "I had no idea." He's almost drooling. Ziva solves the problem hitting him with a Gibbs' slap.

"Ouch," "Focus, McGee," she points to the plasma, "this is the important part," they look at Joy as she stops her impromptu dancing, puts the pompoms in the car trunk and locks it, she goes around to unlock the driver's door and stops, looks around for a second with a frown, unlocks the door and suddenly tries to touch her back, where they can see there is some kind of dart on it. She takes it out of her back; she looks at it, and slowly slides against the driver's door unconscious.

A few seconds later, a car stops close to hers, they see a man with a LA Lakers hat blocking his face approaching her, and he drags her to the trunk, closes it, and drives away.

Gibbs shakes his head at the silly antics of his agent that might end up costing her life. "Ziva," "APB on the car, Boss," "McGee," "I'll take the video to Abby, maybe she can get some detail of our suspect's face," "DiNozzo," "I wonder how she would look in a cheerleader's uniform," slap "Ouch, not my business, Boss," "Help the FBI review the files," Gibbs looks at his agents, who scatter to obey his orders, nods to Hotch and leaves to get his coffee.

McGee goes down to Abby, Ziva goes to her computer to start the APB and DiNozzo sits by Emily Prentiss, and gives her his most charming smile.

She smiles back in a reserved way, and keeps looking at the files.

"What can you guys tell us about this perp?"

"He is a psychopath with control issues," says Reid in lecture mode, "and as he had seen the carvings in Buchanan's back he believes he found the perfect vessel for his obsession."

Tony shakes his head, still shell-shocked at the revelations of this morning. Buchanan's mother and sister had left shortly after talking with McGee and Gibbs, behind closed doors, for a while.

She simply said that she would 'gather the troops,' whatever that might mean in that family.

"Does she really have the word servant carved in her back?" Tony looks at the profiler, who looks more like a college student than an experienced FBI agent.

"The scars are very old, probably from her childhood," Reid starts to theorize, "considering that she was adopted when she was between nine to ten years, and she already had the scars back then, we're talking about a very early trauma."

"Wait a second, she's adopted?" Ziva looks up from her computer, surprised at this piece of information.

"Didn't you know that?" Hotch looks at the two NCIS agents, who shake their heads no.

"Haven't you noticed how different she looks from her sisters?" Derek looks at the agents, with a smirk, "like water and oil?"

"Well, it is hard to miss," says DiNozzo, "Faith has pale skin and black hair, and looks just like Mrs. Buchanan probably looked like back in the day," he leans back on his chair and smiles, "Hope is …" he sighs, and makes the shape of a curvaceous female body with his hand, and Hotch smiles at the antic of this agent, "she is…"

"Adopted as well," says Reid, without looking up from the papers in his hand.

"Really?"

"Both her and Grace are really blood relatives, however both sisters were adopted by the Buchanan family quite young, after their parents died in a car crash," says Hotch.

"And Grace is…"

"Buchanan's sister who is working in the FBI office in Idaho," says Emily.

"Are all the girls working for the FBI, in one way or the other?"

"And all the boys are Marines, deployed somewhere," says Emily, studying the NCIS agent who insists on trying to charm her, "didn't she tell you guys all that?" she looks first at Ziva, and looks back at DiNozzo, "she usually only talks about her family, all the time."

DiNozzo turns to the file in his hands, and grimaces a little, "she doesn't really share her private life with us," Ziva completes, "or her private thoughts either," she stands up and goes to DiNozzo's desk, where she collects one of the folders and start looking at the papers in it, "she's a very reserved person."

Hotch pauses a little, and look at Reid and Derek, and looks back at the report in his hand, "She wasn't like that," he says.

"At least, before LA, she wasn't,'" mutters Reid.

"She doesn't seem to have the same communication problems with the other agent," says Derek with a smile, "what's his name, McGee?"

"Ah," smirks DiNozzo, "but McGeek was hiding the game from us." "He wasn't," interrupts Ziva, "he just wished for a little privacy and not to be mocked by you, Tony." "Ah come on, would I do that?" he looks at Ziva with a pleading look, and she looks at him sternly.

"Why do you think he kidnapped her again?" Ziva wants to know, looking at the profilers, "he escaped from a federal prison, killed a teenager and went across half of the country just to carefully send her head to the niece of the profiler who was responsible for his arrest, with her name as the sender, and she also happens to be the only one alive involved in the first case," she looks at Hotch, and voices her fears, "what do you think he's doing to her?"

Hotch shakes his head, "whatever it is, it is not good."

* * *

Reviews are food for my soul.


	8. Another talk

_****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc. Major crossover with Criminal Minds.**_

* * *

_**Another talk**_

McGee enters Abby's lab and stops. There's no music coming out of the CD player, and his happy goth friend is sitting before her computer, staring at it in a desolated posture.

"Abby?"

"McGee!" She jumps and immediately looks at him. She smiles at him thinly.

"What's up?"

McGee can clearly see that her cheerfulness is fake, "what's wrong?" she shakes her vigorously, bouncing her pigtails, "There's nothing wrong," she says.

He can see the strain on her face and hear it in her voice, "Are you sure?" "Sure, what do you need me for?"

He shows her the DVD he has in his hands, "I need you to examine this," he turns serious eyes to Abby, "Buchanan was kidnapped last night, and we just found out, and this is the video of the perp taking her."

"Oh my God," she grabs the DVD, and turns to her computer and puts it on the driver, "let's see it."

The scene starts again.

"You must be worried sick about her," she comments without looking at him, frowning at some commands on her computer.

McGee pretends he doesn't know what she's talking about, "of course I am, she is my partner."

"Ah McGee, come on," she turns to look at him, "you're dating."

McGee blushes, "Ahh…" he stammers.

"We're not dating, we are just …" again he can't define what they have.

"She told me."

"She did." McGee is surprised, as far as he knew the two women did not have a friendly relationship, and avoided each other as much as possible, "And what did she tell you?"

Abby starts pacing the lab, twisting her hands agitatedly, "she actually made this long speech of how wonderful you were and how you made her feel."

McGee is curious now. "How do I make her feel?" _She spoke to Abby about that? _he thinks.

Abby looks at him, "McGeeeee" she whines, "Don't you know?"

McGee scratches his head, and looks back at the video, where they can see Joy's doing her improvised dancing. "I don't know, we don't talk about things."

"You guys don't?"

"No, we just, …." Abby smirks at him, "it's not like that, we just …" He blushes an even brighter red, and Abby does a little dance, "so it's true, you were holding back from me, Timmy!"

"What?" _What the hell did they talk about?_

Abby goes to McGee and forcefully puts her hands on his shoulders, making him look her straight in her eyes, "she said, and I am quoting her here, '_He soothed my fears, he silenced my demons, he makes me a whole person_,'" McGee is speechless, with an astonished expression on his face, "she said that?" Abby nods, and completes, "my personal favorite is '_I don't need a prince, a saint or a hero, or someone to come slaying my dragons. I don't need more than he already has, because what he __has__,__ is__ more than enough of the things I need_.'" Abby shakes her head at McGee, incredulous at how blind he is, "she loves you, not only that, she is _in_ love with you," she smiles sadly at McGee, "she just doesn't know that yet."

She lets go of his shoulders, and turns back to the computer, clicking at something to enhance the video, leaving McGee looking at her flabbergasted, she looks at him slyly, and says, "now let's bring your lady friend home."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

A cell phone rings in the bullpen. Derek Morgan answers it, "Morgan speaking."

"Hello gorgeous," says Penelope Garcia, computer tech from the FBI who holds a special torch for the handsome black profiler, "I think I found something."

"Hey guys," he covers the phone, "Garcia has something for us," he puts her on speakerphone, and Hotch says, "What did you find, Garcia?"

"I've found his escape vehicle. I've been following up the reports on the APB sent by NCIS, and I just got a hit."

"Where did he let it?"

"He dropped it in a ditch on a small access road in Hoyles Mill Conservation Park, near Germantown, Maryland. The local cops found it this morning and I requested them to secure the scene until one of you guys have the time to check it out."

"Any sign of our missing agent?"

"No," Garcia types something on her keyboard, and she sees blown up pictures of a car in the woods on her screen, "but there are tire tracks on the dirt, indicating that another vehicle was there, he probably just changed cars," she sighs frustrated.

Hotch looks at his agents, "Derek, Emily, go." The agents stand up and get ready to check the crime scene, but DiNozzo doesn't want to stay behind, "what about us?" Ziva is looking at Hotchner, "she is our teammate, too."

He nods at the NCIS agents, "Go and check if you can find anything to help us find her."

The NCIS and the BAU agents get their coats. "Thanks Garcia," says Derek, ready to disconnect.

"hey hey, wait, wait, WAIT!" shouts Garcia at Derek, "I'm not done yet." He stops and looks at Hotch, "what did you find, babygirl?"

"It just came in, she clicks on something, "there was a report of a kidnapping on the 270 highway going north, a police cruiser stopped a car matching its description on a service road close to Clopper Road, on 117."

"That's on the way to Germantown," says Hotch.

Garcia starts watching the video and gasps, "oh my God."

"Garcia," Derek is worried at the tech, "talk to me, baby."

"You guys better see this," she says, and they can hear the tears on her voice.

* * *

Reviews are food for my soul.


	9. Connecting the dots

_****__****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc. Major crossover with Criminal Minds.**_

* * *

_**Connecting the dots**_

"_Whatever happens, __don't die__" – _**_Special Agent Joy Buchanan's only rule._**

Hotch, Vance, Gibbs, McGee, Abby and Reid are watching on the plasma in MTAC the video Garcia sent them.

Emily and Derek, along with Tony and Ziva, left to check the ditched car.

McGee and Abby are working franticly to enhance the quality of the video. Abby glances at McGee briefly and sees that his hands are shaking a little, but he has a fierce expression on his face.

"He's not even trying to hide his intentions," says Vance, "stopping to a patrol car, killing the cop, not hiding his face," he looks at Gibbs and Hotch, who are staring at the scene before them, "he clearly wants us to find him, he wants us to know that he's going north."

"That's probably because he's not staying North," says Gibbs, frowning at the way he grabs Joy's hair and shakes her by it, "he probably wants us to lose his tracks, wants us thinking he's going north while he can go elsewhere, undisturbed," he turns to Hotch, "the first time around, how did you find him?"

Reid responds instead, "He used the abandoned houses of his own victims as his hideout," he shrugs, "as a real state agent, he had access to people's finances and real state properties, and he chose his victims according to his taste: they had to be single, lonely, no living relatives, and with an off the track property where he could set up as base for a while."

"Most of the time, he would setup an initial interview, investigate the victim, and if she had the necessary requirements, he would grab her and take her to his nest, where he would simply let her there to suffer whenever he could visit, or, in some cases," he shook his head, "until they starved to death."

"How many victims did he have?" Gibbs looks at Hotch and Reid, and sees their discomfort at the question, and insists, "how many?"

"We were aware of eighteen people missing, but when the LA BAU cracked all of his hideouts," Reid shakes his head, sadly, "the body count went up to twenty six."

"He had been kidnapping and keeping his victims captive for more than ten years, in different locations, and even different states," says Hotch, "and as his victims were lonely people, with no living relatives, their disappearance took a while to be noticed and reported."

"By the time they were reported missing, he had already crossed state lines and hid her in one of his hideouts," says Reid, "the cases never really raised any red flags as they were only missing, we never actually had bodies to start an investigation with."

"And you guys never connected the dots? Never seen the similarity between the cases?" Gibbs is furious at what he thinks of as the incompetency of the FBI.

"Even though he had contact with all the victims, he was patient," says Hotch, understanding the senior agent's frustration, "he sometimes waited several years after his first contact with his intended victim before snatching her, and sometimes he only spoke to them briefly on the phone, never having met them personally," Hotch looks at the replay of the video, studying how he coldly kills the cop without any remorse or fear, "by the time he actually kidnapped them, the trail was cold."

"How did you crack the case the first time?" McGee looks at the BAU agents, worried about his partner. Each new thing he heard about this criminal made his stomach twist with worry.

"He made a mistake," says Reid, with a smile on his face, "he didn't do his homework correctly, and one of his victims actually had living relatives. A very distant second cousin and they had not seen each other for many years. As soon as the word on the victim's disappearance reached her, she organized everything to visit and execute the estate. She was in financial problems, so she needed the money."

"She had the biggest surprise of her life, when she came to one of the properties, the most isolated one, and found decaying bodies hanging from hooks on the basement ceiling."

"Once the bodies were identified as the missing people from the case, things started to fall into place, and the net was getting tighter and tighter."

"When he realized that they were onto his crimes," says Hotch, "he decided to grab two of the LA team, forcing them into his games," he shakes his head, "the rest is history."

The men and Abby stay silent for a moment, not willing to drag out in the open what happened in LA, as well as what happened after the rescue mission.

"What are her chances?" mutters McGee, looking between Hotch and Reid, who shake their heads, "we can't foresee…" "no," interrupts McGee, angrily looking at the two agents, "you've seen this before, you've seen her," he gulps, and tries to blink away the tears on his eyes, "_then_, when you found her the first time," he looks at the two agents, begging for a chance, some hope, anything, "what are her chances of coming out alive?"

Gibbs looks at McGee worriedly, and he sees how he is struggling to keep a tight rein on his nerves.

Reid looks at McGee, he understands the Agent's worry, and tries to be as truthful as possible in his answer, "of all his victims, the ones who lasted longer were the ones who obeyed and complied with his orders and wishes. He is a very manipulative man, who believes he has the right of life or death over his victims," he looks McGee in the eye, and explains, "he killed mercilessly all the victims who did not obey him blindly, or that showed defiance towards him; as long as she does not rebel against him," he is still looking in McGee's eyes, "she might still have a chance."

McGee shakes his head, "she doesn't take orders that easily, she will fight him," Hotch nods, "I know, but she knows _him_, she had him profiled before, and she knows that her only chance of getting alive is to obey," Hotch glances at Gibbs for a second, and then puts his hand on McGee's shoulder, "I know Agent Gibbs is famous for his rules to live by, but," McGee lifts his eyes from his trembling hands and looks at Hotch, "Joy also has her own rules to live by."

"Really? She never told me that," says McGee, and Gibbs is also paying attention to Hotch.

"Actually, It's only one single rule, that she once told me that she would always follow," says Hotch with a thin smile in his face, "regardless of the circumstance, if there was anything in her power, she would follow that rule."

That picks Gibbs' attention, as well as the Director's, "what rule would that be?"

"Whatever happens," Hotch pauses to emphasize how serious he is, "_don't die_."

* * *

Reviews are food for my soul.

a/n: Next chapter deals with hurt and torture elements, if you don't like it, don't read it, and skip to the next. There will be a tiny element of supernatural in it, if you blink it you will miss it.

cheers.


	10. In the arms of an angel

_**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

* * *

___**In the arms of an Angel**_

_In the arms of an angel__  
__Fly away from here__  
__From this dark cold hotel room__  
__And the endlessness that you fear__  
__You are pulled from the wreckage__  
__Of your silent reverie__  
__You're in the arms of the angel__  
__May you find some comfort there_

_Angel – _**_Sarah McLachlan_**

After some hours driving in back roads, trying to lose anyone who might have been on his tracks, he reaches his present hideout by dawn. It is somewhere in a wooded area. He parks his car a couple of meters away, grabs only a backpack and goes to the trunk. He opens it and grabs the woman in a fireman hold, and walks up the mountain by a deer trail to the dilapidated house in the clearing. The forest surrounding the house gives a very depressing feeling, and the rotten boards that make out the porch show that the place has been abandoned for at least a couple of decades.

He opens the door, and we see that, despite the decrepit exterior, there is some kind of order in the room. There is a table and a working fireplace, as well as wood cut for it piled on a corner. Everything is very rustic, a hunter's retreat. Game heads, hunted years ago while it was still allowed to hunt in the park, decorate the walls in places of honor, and the eyes of the stuffed up animals were the only witnesses to see him carry her to the door that led to the basement of the house.

He slowly made his way to the basement, turned on the lights, and smiled, delighted at his toys hanging on the walls. As soon as he met this beauty, he knew she would be _the one_, who would fulfill all his fantasies and needs. She just needed a firm hand to guide her to him, and he was really willing to give her that, teaching her all his desires.

He deposits her on the bed he prepared in a corner of the basement, and walks around the bed. She follows him with her eyes, and sees him bringing a chain attached to the wall towards her.

"This time," he smiles down at her, and glides his hand over her face and slides his fingers through her hair, almost as a caress, "I'm going to make certain that you can't leave me, Servant." He gets a pocket knife, and her eyes get bigger, he turns her on her belly down the bed, and slices the tight cords and she moans as the blood starts to circulate again in the tingling limbs. He brings one of her hands to his front, and attaches the chain to it. She moans in pain, and looks at him, without fear in her eyes, but just studying his movements. He goes onto the bed, and straddles her on her back. She closes her eyes, as he starts to caress her hair, as if fascinated by the brown curls, which spring back into form as soon as he tries to make them straight. He leans down, and whispers in her ear, "We are going to have a lot of fun together, _Servant._"

He gets off the bed, turns off the lights and leaves the basement. She's left alone chained to the wall, lying on the bed with her legs still taped together and a piece of duct tape over her mouth. She doesn't move for some minutes. After she is certain he's not coming back, she turns onto on her side, hugs her legs to her chest and closes her eyes, letting silent tears run by her face.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

He returns by dusk. She can hear the noise of the front door closing, and she sits down on the bed. Joy took the tape off of her legs, and had massaged them until she could feel the blood circulating again. She took the tape off of her mouth a few hours before, and did a thorough search through the basement. His torture toys and whips were beyond her reach with the chain, which allowed her to reach the table positioned close to the stairs, a small toilet and a sink in the left corner.

The door to the basement opens, and his footsteps can be heard on the stairs.

"Hello, Servant, I've brought dinner," says Jarod, smiling at his captive. She is sitting on the bed, unmoving. There is no fear in her eyes, she just studies him as if he were a bug under a microscope. It is the same intelligence he's seen the other time, when he had her under his control, the same strength that kept her going even while he was destroying the soul and the mind of her colleague.

He had laughed out loud when he heard through the grapevine what the other agent he had captured did to his own team. He kept waiting to hear how he had success in killing the servant, or how deranged she had become after staying with him, but no such word reached him. Actually, the only thing he was able to find out was that she had quit the FBI and transferred to NCIS, and that only several months after their encounter.

The Servant kept quiet, only watching him. He deposits the food on the table, and looks around satisfied that, except that she is now free of the duct tape he used on her, nothing seems out of place. He doesn't mind that her hands and legs are free now, she was bolted with chains to the wall anyway.

He sits down. "I brought the food, but now you have to serve me." He looks at her, trying to fish for any reaction, "you are the Servant, after all." He smiles at her, studying her, trying to find any weakness.

She stays unmoving for some seconds,and looks at the table and at the food and plastic plates he brought downstairs with him. She slowly stands up, in silence, and approaches the table. He just studies her, waiting for her to attack him. She leans over and grabs the first box of Chinese takeout, and opens it, and starts to pour the contents on the plastic plate he brought with him. They are still a little bit warm. She does that silently, serving only him, and sits down on the other empty chair.

He grabs the chopsticks from the table and starts to eat, not offering anything to her.

"Hum, it's very good." He keeps munching, looking at her.

She doesn't look at him, and does not move from her position at the chair. "Aren't you hungry?" he is almost finished with his dinner. He leans over, and his face hovers over hers, and she is looking at him without an expression on her face, "don't you want to eat, servant?" she stays silent, "DON'T YOU WANT TO EAT?" He screams at her, she startles and nods, and he smiles, "if you want to eat, you have to deserve it, and he grabs the unopened Chinese boxes and takes them out of her reach. He cleans his mouth on the sleeve of his shirt, returns to her side and grabs her by the arm and throws her back on the bed.

"You will have to work for it, Servant," he starts undoing his belt. She looks in the direction of the wall behind the bed, and he smiles, "what? Are you shy, Servant?"

He drops his pants, and approaches her on the bed, and when he touches her arm she gives him a straight jab in the nose, probably breaking it, she prepares to give him another but he overpowers her and hits her in the face, bringing tears to her eyes and a ringing to her ears. She falls, and he grabs her by the hair and drags her back to bed. "No," she screams, her first words since he abducted her, and tries to claw his eyes out, anything within reach of her nails, he overpowers her, throws all the weight of his body on top of her, and his arms go around her neck and he starts to suffocate her, "you will obey ME!" she starts to fade and her struggles diminish. He lets her go, and she gasps, trying to breathe. He proceeds to rip her shirt, and starts to open her trousers. She struggles against him, but one of his hands returns to her neck and starts to apply pressure, she can see stars behind her eyelids again and her strength is almost gone, she feels him touching her there. Her eyes fill with tears, _Oh Tim, I've tried, I really tried, please forgive me,_ she thinks.

He laughs, and gets prepared to thrust himself in her body.

_Block him out, Joy_, she thinks.

He forces her legs wide open, and positions himself at her opening, and thrusts.

BLOCK HIM OUT NOW!

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Joy opens her eyes, and takes a couple of seconds to identify where she is. The posters of Bon Jovi and a very young looking Madonna covering the pink walls and the dresser overflowing with Hello Kitty stuff gives her a clue, but her mind is too clouded for her to make sense of what is happening.

She rises from the bed, and looks around. She's in her bedroom back in Glasgow, Montana, exactly as it was twenty years ago. She moves the Strawberry Shortcake duvet out of the way, and stands. She can't hear the noises of a house full of children that she remembers from her childhood, and she looks around and sees herself in her pajamas, covering her eleven year old body.

The sun is shining outside, and the wind is slowly moving the branches of the big cypress trees just outside her window. She goes and looks through it, and sees the view of the small river that runs through the back of the Buchanans' property, and the barley fields on the other side of it. Standing by the river, with his back towards her, is a man.

His blond hair is almost white, reaching his shoulders, and his strong wide shoulders bespoke power and energy. He was dressed in blue jeans and a checkered shirt, but the simple clothing did nothing to hide the strength that seemed to radiate from him.

She recognizes him, and leaves the bedroom, intent on finding him.

She slowly makes her way through the corridor, down the stairs, and through the halls, looking around at the house as it was immortalized in her memory. The pictures of a happy smiling family were hanging in the corridor, the fireplace with the Holy Bible open on the mantelpiece. She goes to the kitchen, and exits through the backyard door.

She approaches the man. Her steps are fast, and she finally stands by his side, and looks in the same direction he's looking.

He doesn't acknowledge her, but he knows she's standing by his side.

They stay in silence for a few moments, just hearing the murmur of the waters and the wind in the tree boughs.

She interrupts the silence, "it's been a while, Commander."

He smiles a small smile, looks down at her and turns his eyes back to the fields of barley, slowly dancing on the wind, "you haven't needed my personal intervention in a while, Joy."

She stays in silence for some moments, and nods agreeing.

"Why did you bring me here?" she looks up at him.

"Because this," he points around them, at the fields, the house and the trees, "was the first place you've ever felt safe," he looks down at her, "loved," he frowns, "and you have to remember that in order to survive the ordeal ahead."

She frowns at him, "I'm being hurt, ain't I?"

He falls down on one of his knees, so he can look at her on the same level, "yes, you are," he says seriously, looking her in the eyes. He has never lied to her, even when it might hurt.

She nods, and turns her eyes to the fields of barley moving under the whisper of the wind again.

She starts to recite a verse in the gospel of John, "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

He opens his arms, and she climbs in his lap and he folds his arms around her frail eleven year old body, firmly in his grasp, "you know we can't interfere directly in the material world," she raises her head from his neck, and looks him in the eye, "but I want you to know that we will guide your family to you, you just have to hang on," he touches her hair, and plays with her curls, "hang on until they find you."

She nods, and buries her face on his neck, "I will hang on, Commander Tal."

So there, in that little corner of her mind and memory, the Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts held his precious charge carefully in his hands, protecting this little soul in his arms, the same one he had helped save from the abyss so many years ago.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Jarod finished his business, thrusting himself inside the silent woman under him and grunting at the end. Still panting, he leaned on his elbows and looked back at her. She was looking fixedly at a point in the wall, unresponsive.

_The lights are on, but there is nobody in the house, _he thinks. He took his shrinking member out of her body, and shook her by the elbows, but got no response. "Hey, didn't you enjoy it?" he grabs her head, and looks in her eyes, but there is no expression in her eyes at all.

He lets her head fall back on the bed, and stands up, and looks down at the body he had abused. The marks of his teeth and his hands left imprints on her tanned skin. He shrugs, gets the Chinese boxes and leaves them within her reach, on the table and leaves.

As soon as he closes the door of the basement, she blinks, turns to her side, closes her eyes and falls asleep. She doesn't move from that position until the next morning.

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Reviews are food for my soul.


	11. Meet the in laws

_**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

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_**Meet the in-laws.**_

The profilers and the NCIS agents spent the whole day reviewing data and interviews related to the first case. As it was a high profile case, spanning several states and many years, they decided to divide the files into batches.

They didn't need to figure out who the unsub was. They already knew it. They had the surveillance videos to prove that it had been Jarod. Abby had enhanced one of the stills of the bastard and it was blinking on the plasma. The main point right now was to find possible hideouts in the area where he might have hidden the missing agent.

They separated the files according to the years when the victims went missing, and each three agents worked with five years. Emily, Reid and Derek were on the first five years, and Tony, Ziva and Tim were examining the interviews related to the last five years. Gibbs and Hotch were trying to pinpoint a map of all victims and hideouts.

Around nine pm, as they were sitting there, the elevator pings and a couple slowly enter the squad room. They are followed by two women in business suits and a man in a Marine's uniform. The old man has the posture of a military man, but the soft lines on his face showed he had been living a much quieter life, full of laughter and joy. He leads his wife by the arm, mindful of the operation she had on her ankle a couple of months ago, due to a fall. The three younger adults follow silently after them.

Their approach is noted by Agent Hotchner, who turns to greet them, "Reverend Buchanan, Mrs. Buchanan," and he stretches out his hand to shake one of theirs, "it is a pleasure to see you again, sir," the reverend smiles thinly, and says, "I just wish it was in better circumstances," Hotch turns and sees Agent Gibbs and his team standing up to meet the newcomers, "Agent Gibbs, let me introduce you Joy's father, Reverend Joseph Buchanan," they shake hands, "you've met Maggie Buchanan," they nod, acknowledging each other, "and Joy's siblings, Faith, that you've met this morning," they shake hands, "Corporal Matthew Buchanan, US Marine Corps," he takes a step forward and shakes Gibbs' hand, "and Hope, who…" "we've met before," interrupts DiNozzo, and he smiles at Hope. He is surprised that she doesn't smiles back at him, dismissively waves a hand in his direction and says, "we worked on a case together," she walks towards McGee's desk, throws her bag on the table and proceeds to drag him into a bone crushing hug. After a moment of hesitation, he puts his hands around her waist and returns the hug. She can feel the tension in his shoulders, she takes a step back and looks at his face, and studies it, seeing the strain lines, then she squeezes his shoulder and says, "don't write her off yet, she is stronger than you might think," she turns to the other agents, and says, "where are we on the investigation?"

"We are still reviewing the paperwork," says Emily, "we're trying to rewrite the profile", Faith shakes her head at the agents, "we already have a profile, he's a psychopath, what we need now is finding where he hid my sister,"

"A profile will help…"

"He changed patterns, he changed his M.O." says Hope testily to Emily, "if you base your profile on his past crimes it won't help Joy."

"Please calm down," says Reid, trying to cool down the infamous Buchanan temper.

Faith is incensed, "Please calm down? I won't calm down. Do you want to know how I started my morning? To the sound of my twelve year old daughter screaming like a banshee at a decapitated head sent to my home in a box, with a note saying that that soon would be my sister, and YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN?"

All the agents start to talk at the same time, and Maggie and Joseph look at each other.

"SILENCE!" shouts Reverend Buchanan. They all shut up, as he still has the authority in his voice of his years as colonel, even though he had been retired a long time, "squabbling will not help Joy, and we're losing precious time here," he looks at Gibbs and Hotch, "do whatever you need to do, me and my family will offer any assistance you might need, if" he looks sternly at his daughters, who were opening their mouths to interrupt him, " _only if_ you request it," they shut their mouths.

Maggie squeezes his hand, and goes to Agent Gibbs, and hands him a list, "the last time, he hid on properties that belonged to the victims themselves, or to their family. I made a list of places that belong to our family that might be an ideal hideout, but we don't really have many properties on this side of the country." He looks at the list briefly, and passes it to Hotch, "thanks, Mrs. Buchanan, let's hope we have luck with this."

Hotch looks at the list, and Reid stands up and starts reading over his shoulder. There are thirteen family properties listed on the paper, which were five apartments and a house in DC area and surroundings, an apartment in NY, the family main house in Montana, two apartments in LA, a house in Norfolk and two houses in Florida.

"These are only the houses where we either have one of the kids living in, or are summer or winter houses. We also invested in some real estate properties, but then those were never visited by or lived in by any of us," says Maggie.

"I had no idea Joy came from a wealthy family," says DiNozzo, looking at Hope who still hadn't looked at him, "we're not," says Reverend Buchanan, "we just invested wisely through the years, and tried to help the kids whenever they decided to buy theirs on their own." Maggie nods, and continues, "besides, my father was a general, he had some properties himself that I inherited later on, and I had a trust fund, and since my youth I had worked with top secret contracts for the Armed Forces, the money I've made I've either invested in my children's education," she points her children and looks at DiNozzo, "or trust funds for my grandchildren. Everything they have today," she looks at DiNozzo in the eye, "they had to work hard to have it."

"Any new forensic evidence?" asks Faith, impatiently.

Hotch looks at her, and after a brief glance at the Buchanan parents, answers her question, "We found tire tracks in the area where he exchanged cars, leaving the car he used to escape behind."

"Abby's looking into it and as soon as she identifies the model or the mark, she will tell us," says McGee, "Abby?" asks Matthew, and McGee answers his unspoken question, "she's our resident forensics specialist. One of the best."

The NCIS agents sit down at their own tables, and the BAU agents sit on the extra chairs they had requested, leaving the family standing for a moment. McGee notices that faux pas and offers to go collect chairs for them. "Just point the way, sir," says Matthew and leaves to get chairs for his parents.

Hope gets her bag from McGee's desk and goes to Joy's and looks at the mix of knickknacks in it, each representing something to one of the siblings. She gets the snow globe on the table and starts playing with it in her hand. Faith approaches her and squeezes her shoulder. Maggie and Joseph walk up to them, and Maggie sits on her daughter's chair and sighs.

The team goes back to reading their own reports, and McGee puts his hand inside the evidence box he is going through with Ziva and Tony and gets a file at random and starts reading it. He frowns at it, closes it and looks at the first page, and opens it again to continue reading.

Matthew returns with two chairs, and gives one to his father and other to one of his sisters, and returns to collect two more chairs for himself and his other sister.

"He used three hideouts during a period of twelve years," says Hotch, "The first belonged to the first victim's mother, who was deceased at that time. There he tortured and killed six womenin a period of three years."

"The second hideout belonged to his seventh victim, she was kidnapped and kept in the basement of her holiday home in the mountains for twenty months, before her injuries resulted in her demise," Hotch shakes his head at the waste of human life, "he brought five other women there," he points to the map on the plasma, and says to Gibbs, "he would kidnap themin one state and cross state lines to hide them. He used this hideout for two and a half years, and then moved on."

"The third, where the FBI finally made his arrest," he puts some pictures on the plasma, "he hid fifteen victims there, including our two agents," Reid interferes, "he got so comfortable in his role that he believed nobody would ever catch him, so he stayed in the same hideout for seven years."

"All of them have being isolated, far from civilization and easy access for a highway, if needs be, in common."

"Let's not forget that the properties belonged to the victim herself, or was a family property and they had not been inhabited for years," says Emily, "the last hideout was a serious candidate for demolition, as it was condemned for years."

Before Gibbs ask the profiler his question, McGee stands up abruptly, very pale, leaves his desk and hurries to the men's room.

"What's wrong with him?" Tony wants to know, and looks at Ziva who shrugs, "No idea."

Derek stands up and goes to McGee's desk, and checks the report he was reading and frowns, "Who gave him that to read?" Hotch approaches, and Derek gives the file to him, while the NCIS agents shrug, "he caught it on his own in the box," answers DiNozzo.

Hotch frowns at the document in his hand, and Gibbs looks at the FBI agent questioningly, Hotch looks up from the paper, and looks at Gibbs, concerned, "this is the original forensic report on her first kidnapping," the agents and her family look horrified at it, "uncut and unedited, detailing everything that happened to her," and gives the file to Gibbs and shakes his head, "he should never have read that."

Gibbs starts to look through the file, and he needs to support himself on his own desk when he finds the blown up pictures of her injuries. He turns his stare at Hotch, "how did she survive that?"

Hotch shakes his head, without answers. Gibbs returns the file to Hotch and starts to follow his hurt agent.

Reverend Buchanan sighs, slaps his tighs and stands up, blocking Gibbs' way. Gibbs stares at the Reverend, silently ordering him to move.

"I think I'm better prepared to talk to your boy, Agent Gibbs," says the reverend.

"He's my agent," hisses Gibbs, tempted to deck the reverend standing in the way to the men's room.

"But she's my daughter," says the reverend firmly, and points to the file in Hotch's hand, "and I know every single wound and scratch written in that file by heart, because I was there," says the reverend, without backing off, "I was the one who had to tell her, once she woke up from her coma, that her world as she knew it was over; I helped her get back all the broken pieces of her former life and glue them back together," he shakes his head, "there were big chunks of it missing, and sometimes the pieces did not match each other perfectly, but still she did it," he looks Gibbs in the eye, "and I know exactly what he's going through, because I also had to see her broken body and I didn't want to believe that it was the body of one of my loved ones and," he shakes his head, "after seeing that, it's very hard to hold yourself together. No one is ever the same after that."

They have a staring match, none willing to back down an inch.

After a few seconds, Gibbs takes a step back, and looks in the direction of the men's room in a worried manner, "he's hurting," he murmurs.

"I know," says the reverend, and he looks back in the direction McGee went, "but this is a kind of hurt that you won't be able to heal," he looks back in Gibbs' eyes, and sees only paternal concern in them, "from father to father, let me have the honors."

Gibbs nods his acceptance, and Reverend Buchanan takes off his overcoat and gives it to his wife, looks down at her and mentally prepares for battle, "let me have a talk with my future son-in-law."

He walks decisively towards the men's room, opens the door, and enters it.

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Reviews are food for my soul.

a/n: Daddy Buchanan meets Tim... I wonder...


	12. Unbreak my heart

_****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

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_**Unbreak my heart**_

Reverend Buchanan closes the door of the men's room, and can hear the faint sound of retching behind the door of the last stall.

He sends a little prayer for wisdom to the heavens, and goes to the sinks, washes his hands and gets some paper towels from the dispenser to dry them.

McGee flushes the toilet, walks out of the stall, sends a glare at Mr. Buchanan, and walks to the sink and starts rinsing his mouth. Mr. Buchanan gets more paper and hands it to McGee, silently waiting for the younger man to look at him.

"Thanks," says McGee softly.

"You're welcome, son," Reverend Buchanan leans against the bathroom sink, and patiently waits for McGee to finish splashing water on his face and drying it with the paper towels.

He stops and mimics the reverend's posture. His shoulders are hunched, and pure misery seems to radiate from him in waves.

"I had no idea," he says softly, "I mean, I saw the scars on her back, I touched…" he pauses as he realizes he is speaking to the father of the woman he has been sleeping with, and maybe that conversation would be highly inappropriate, but in the Reverend's face there is no animosity, only understanding, so he continues, "the bullet scars, but I never really …" he chokes up, "I…" he can't continue.

"Has she ever told you how I met her?" Reverend Buchanan says softly, and he's looking at a fixed point on the wall, as if remembering something a long time ago, he glances briefly at the negative shake of McGee's head, and he starts his tale, "I was coming back home from a conference in Detroit, and I missed my scheduled train to Montana. I had to take a later train, and after I called my wife informing her of my delay I turned around and there she was," the reverend smiles, and looks at McGee who is looking at him attentively, "just the skinniest little thing I've ever seen, probably not older than ten, with a huge mess of curly hair in a ponytail and clean ratty clothes staring at me with huge doe like eyes. I said hi and she didn't answer me back, I noticed right away she was just a street kid and turned to leave but there was something…" he looks in McGee's eyes, "something in her eyes that made me turn back and invite her over to eat something."

"She does have amazing eyes," whispers McGee, completely besotted.

Reverend Buchanan smiles, "we spent the time I had eating chocolate cake and drinking hot chocolate, and she did not speak a single word the whole time, she would just look at me and smile, and I would talk to her about everything and nothing. She would just study me as if I was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen," he shrugs, "I thought to myself, 'what a pity, such a gorgeous kid living on the streets', paid the bill, stood, said goodbye and left." He smiles and looks back at McGee, "I had no idea that she had stolen my wallet."

"She stole your wallet?"

"Yep," he nods, "and that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship." McGee is listening attentively, so he continues, "you see, inside my wallet I had family pictures. Me, Maggie, the whole gang. Little Temp wasn't born yet. She was simply enchanted with them, and somehow she found a way to buy a train ticket to Montana and followed me a couple of days later," McGee is smiling at the resourcefulness of his partner, even such young age, "she wandered in Glasgow for some weeks, until the cops found her sleeping in an abandoned house. Once questioned, she simply presented my wallet to them. I was called in, and to my surprise there she was, the little girl from the train station in Detroit."

"When I was told by the sheriff that they would send her away to be put in an orphanage, and wait until someone come claim her, I" he pauses an looks at McGee, "I simply couldn't let that happen. As I entered that room, and she stretched her little grubby hand to me, I fell for her, hook, line and sinker; I knew I couldn't let anyone take her away from me." He shakes his hand, "and I've never regretted bringing her to my home and adopting her into my family since then."

"She has scars, yes she does, but she also has this innate human capability of surpassing her pain and finding solace in the littlest things, overcoming over and over again whatever difficulty life seems to throw in her way," he sighs, "and that is what makes her simply extraordinary."

Reverend Buchanan stands up straight, and moves so he is facing McGee, who is thinking about everything he was just told. The reverend thinks about it, and finally decides to reveal something that maybe his daughter wouldn't like McGee to know if she had the chance to decide, "she called me and told me about you," McGee looks at the reverend, "She did? When?" "Right on her first day at NCIS." McGee stands straighter, as that was news to him, "really?"

Reverend Buchanan simply smiles, "yes, she did."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Gibbs, Gibbs, hi Buchanan, we are having a team night, we are going to the bar, wanna come with us?" Abby asks Gibbs, but she is looking at Buchanan. Maybe she can offer an olive branch to the probie.

"Where are you going?" Buchanan wants to know.

"There is this new rockabilly bar which serves great drinks near M street." Says Abby.

"A bar," Buchanan repeats, looking at McGee briefly. He blushes.

"Ah, Probie, one day you have to tell us about this drink…" says Tony with a leer.

"What are you guys talking about?" Gibbs, curious, wants to know.

"McGee met Buchanan in a bar. They had a drink together."

Gibbs looks between his two agents, besides McGee's soft blush there is nothing on Buchanan's face but a smirk.

"His was a Cuba Libre, mine a vodka on ice."

"What exactly was in those drinks?" wonders Ziva. Buchanan smiles but does not respond.

The team gets ready to leave. Buchanan does not move from her place.

"Are you coming?" McGee wants to know, hopefully.

"No, I had enough of bars lately," she answers "and I still have some phone calls to do."

His face falls a little, but he manages to mutter an ok, and follows the team, who, led by Abby, leave the room in a noisy fashion.

Silence falls on the bullpen. Buchanan sits back in her chair and looks at the nearly empty room. She then looks at the landline on her desk.

She dials a number she knows by heart, and waits a few seconds for the call to go through.

"Living God Baptist Church, Annie speaking. How can I help you?" a soft voice says on the other side of the line.

"Hi, Annie, It's Joy. Is he in?"

"Hi, sweetheart, please hold, I will transfer you." Joy spends a couple of seconds listening to mellow country music. She taps the pen on the desk in time with the music.

"Reverend Buchanan speaking." A firm masculine voice says.

"Hi, dad," says Joy softly into the phone.

"Hey, peanut, how are things in your new job?" Reverend Buchanan is surprised by his daughter's phone call, as their checkup calls are usually on the weekends, not on weekdays.

"Eventful," she says, "we had a case today, closed it, bad guys all arrested, everyone is happy," her father hears the distress in her voice, and immediately sits straighter in his chair back in Glasgow, Montana, "you don't sound happy," he hears a sigh on the line, "talk to me, Joy."

After some seconds, she starts softly "A teenager died in a tragic accident, he was run over by a car that didn't stop for a red light, crashing into his motorcycle and two other vehicles. The driver survived, but his wife and daughter, who were with him in the car, didn't. Besides the boy,three other people died. They were in the other cars involved. The boy's father went mad with grief and killed the driver, and kept on killing everyone he ran across who reminded him of his boy's killer."

Reverend Buchanan digests the information for a moment in silence, "that was a tragic accident," she shakes her head, even though she knows her father can't see her, "but an accident that had terrible consequences, which simply snowballed into a river of blood and anger, that contaminated everything that it came in contact with."

She sighs loudly on the phone.

"He could have been me, Dad."

"No, Joy," her father interrupts her, but she is too disturbed to listen to him, "If you weren't there for me, if I had crashed, I could…"

"It didn't happen, Joy," he interrupts her, "_It didn't happen._ He lost touch with reality; he lost sight of what was really important. What happened to him was really tragic, but this loss of control, it didn't happen to you."

"But Dad, Eric also…" her voice cracks and she can't continue. The wound from the tragedy in LA was slowly healing, but in moments like this Joy showed her family that underneath the scabs the wound was still infected and raw.

"What happened to Eric was another tragedy. He lost himself in pain and, unfortunately he didn't have the chance of finding a way from the deep well of despair he found himself in," her father says firmly.

She is listening to her father, tapping her pen rhythmically on her desk, and supporting her head with her other hand.

"Besides, we would never let you fall that far, we will always be there to catch you," says her father, and she smiles. She also changes the subject, "Dad?" "Yes, dear," she pauses, and he instantly knows that it is going to be one of those talks. "Dad, how…" she pauses again, trying to figure out how to talk to her own father about this subject, and her father waits patiently, "how did you know that mom was the one?"

Reverend Buchanan smiles, he had had this talk with his other children, but Joy took her sweet time to finally have _the talk_ with him. He leans back in his chair in his office, and tries to gather his thoughts, "I simply knew it."

"You simply knew it," there is disbelief in her voice.

"Once I met Maggie, I simply knew it. From that moment, there was nobody else for me; my every waking thought, my every breath was dedicated to finding a way to charm and marry that gorgeous woman." He smiles at the memory, "the fact that she was the daughter of my commander officer, and she was extremely beautiful and intelligent scared me shitless," "Dad, language, please," he snorts, "but that's true, she had just graduated in Engineering, and she was one of the first weapons engineers ever to work for the Air Force, and she already had that _don't mess with me__ or you__'__r__e__ dead_ attitude," he smiles at the memory, "I couldn't pronounce a full sentence in her presence, I would simply start stuttering, my palms would get wet, and my stomach would fall somewhere in the vicinity of my feet," Joy laughs out loud, and covers her mouth when people in the other cubicles look at her, she turns her chair around and whispers into the phone, "what happened then?"

He shakes his head, "she must have thought I was a complete dork, but I was flying in the airplanes she had helped design, so me and my colleagues we had the policy of not messing with her, as she literally could make our airplanes turn into fireballs in the sky," he laughs, "and she was not afraid of intimidating us, threatening us with doing exactly that."

"The first time I invited her out, she laughed in my face. She later told me that she thought that I had a lot of courage to ask her out, me a simple airman with my first wings, and she had seen how hurt I was about how she dismissed me that first time."

"She started to watch me after that incident, and I simply did my best to show her my appreciation, but no pressure. A few months later, we were friends, who eventually became best friends and" he shrugs, "the rest is history."

They stay in silence for some moments, but his curiosity wins over his discretion, "any reason why we are having this talk right now?"

Joy smiles, "I've met someone," "uhm… how long have you been in DC, really? Five, six days?" She laughs, "Daaaad!" "sorry, no further interruptions, sooo…" he pauses, waiting for her to continue, but she stays in silence, "soooooo…" "we connected," "uhm…" his father's radar goes wild, "but I thought t that we would never see each other again, but…" "but what?" he's becoming impatient, _come on, Joy, spill it_! "I've just found out that he works with me." Oops, "he works with you," her father says, his mind working in overdrive, "yes, he will be my partner here," _that might be a little awkward_, "is it a bad thing?"

Joy sighs on the phone, and her father can hear the indecision plaguing his daughter, "I don't know. I really don't know."

"Have you talked to him about it?"

"No, no… It would be too awkward."

"Maybe you should," suggests her father, "maybe you should simply take baby steps, see what happens; you never know what you may find."

"You think I should go talk to him."

"Why not? Talking is not a crime."

She stays in silence. Her father knows she is slowly digesting what he just told her.

"Daaaad?"

"Yes, Joy,"

"You do know that I love you, don't you?"

He smiles, she had made up her mind, "I love you too, peanut."

"I gotta go," she says, getting ready to disconnect.

"Good luck with him."

She smiles, "bye, Dad."

"Bye, Joy."

Both disconnect.

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Reviews are food for my soul.


	13. Whispers of winds of change

_****__****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

_**

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**_

Whispers of winds of change

McGee is looking at Reverend Buchanan, charmed by all the new information he got in these last minutes. He had no idea that, that early on their partnership, Buchanan already questioned the future of their relationship.

They never came out in the open and put all the cards on the table, expressing clearly in words what they felt towards each other, but he couldn't deny the tenderness he felt for the beautiful brunette and she also made no effort to hide how comfortable she was with him in her life. They settled in a routine so easily, finishing each other's sentences, working together, eating together, sleeping together, that they never really stopped to talk and say, hey this is it.

There was that veiled fear that, once they voiced their thoughts, the little bubble of happiness they were living in would burst. They had very dangerous jobs, that put their lives in danger every single day they went to investigate a case. They knew the price they had to pay was steep, so that's why they treated what they had as something so fragile and so precious.

Buchanan's father leaves the young man digesting what he told him for some minutes, then puts a hand on his shoulders and says, "I'm not going to promise you that she will make it," McGee looks in Joseph's eyes, and the reverend has tears in his eyes, "I won't lie to you like that. He will hurt her. He might even kill her," McGee grimaces at that, "but if there is one chance," Joseph squeezes McGee's shoulder to make his point, "if there is one little chance she might make it out alive, she will take it, and she will fight for it, because she knows that, when we find her, and _we will find_ _her_, she will have us to back her up, to soothe her fears, to hold her when her nightmares wake her at night," McGee is crying as well, silent tears running down his face, and he is looking down at his hands, "because that's what our family does."

Reverend Buchanan stands straighter, and releases McGee's shoulder, "we will be there for her, but I have to ask you, will you be there for her as well?" McGee looks up at him, "will you be able to handle seeing her hurt, broken, and still see the woman you fell in love with? Will you be strong enough to deal with her night terrors, because" he shakes his head, "there will be night terrors, sleepless nights, total abject fear of intimacy," Reverend Buchanan looks in the eyes of this young man, and gets straight to the point, "if you think you can't handle that, I think you better step back now. But if you do that," he shakes his head, "you won't be the man my daughter thought you were, the one she described to me."

He turns around, and starts leaving the bathroom, leaving McGee to consider his options. But he stops before he opens the door, "you know, she told me you were one of the most brilliant men she had ever met," he turns around and looks at the agent standing by the sink, "maybe it is time to put that genius mind to work. The answers are already there, you just have to know where to find them." He unlocks the door and walks out.

McGee stays staring at the door for some moments, his thoughts clashing inside his mind. He runs his hands through his hair in a frustrated manner, and then rubs his face with trembling hands. He turns around and looks at his imagein the mirror, leans over the sink and examines his reflection. _Can he do it? Can he support her like that? Where did he hide her? Can he help find her? What if he hurt her? What if she is dead?_ His hands hold the sink firmly, and his knuckles become white with his frustration. He looks at his reflection again, and he can't help the frustrated tears running down his face. He lowers his head to his chest, and whispers, "I really don't know if I can do it. Oh God, I don't know. I really don't."

A soft breeze is felt in the room, and he feels a warm blanket of comfort in his soul, and the despair he felt a few moments earlier is substituted by a firm resolution to find her, and new ideas start coming to his mind, and he closes his eyes and really focuses and listens.

What he could not see with his naked eye was the presence of two celestial beings, in all of their glory, each of them standing at one of his sides, with their wings opened and moving slowly, bringing comfort and a soft breeze to his soul. They were taller than him, with strong able bodies fit for war, celestial war, and they had very ancient swords attached to their hips. One of the angels had leaned over his shoulder and was whispering in his ear.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Joseph Buchanan goes back to the bullpen, where the agents are still silently working. Gibbs looks at him, and Joseph shakes his head, sits down on his chair and gives his wife his hand. She holds it in her hand and squeezes it.

Matthew looks at his parents, at his sisters who are fidgeting in their chairs silently, and asks, "What now? What do we do?" He had two weeks leave from his work in the Marine Engineer corp detail in Haiti, he came home to Washington so he could come to Stephanie's birthday, he had never imagined that he might be attending a funeral instead.

His father sighs, looks at the small fraction of his family sitting beside him, and says, "we wait," the girls fidget more, "and we pray, we pray furiously." He lowers his head into his chest, and does exactly that.

A couple of minutes later, McGee comes out of the bathroom and walks decisively to his desk. He sits down and starts typing on his computer with a resolute expression on his face.

Gibbs stands up and goes check on his agent, "McGee?" there is a question in his voice, and McGee answers, "he had help Boss."

"What"

"He had help, someone outside helped him. The package sent to Faith's house," he looks to Joy's sister, "we didn't have a positive ID of him on the video surveillance on the postal office, did we?

"We saw a man matching his description sending the package. He had a cap and hood all the time, as well as sunglasses."

"But we never IDed him because it wasn't him," he goes back to typing. "He had help, he had help all along." He turns to Joy's family and points to Faith, "How did he know about your daughter's birthday? How did he know she would be going to that supermarket? That specific supermarket, close to my house, not hers? He escaped only two days ago, there is no way he could have done all his research and prepared his hideout and kidnapped her in only two days," he is standing now, agitated, and looks at Gibbs with a fierce expression on his face, "someone was feeding him information, someone was stalking her, stalking us, so he knew exactly when to attack her."

"He never had any help before," says Hotch, "he was a lone wolf."

"A lone wolf that was trapped, and the prey he wanted the most escaped from his grasp," says Reid, he stands up and looks at Emily, "did he have any visitors in the jail?"

"We spoke with the prison administrator; he had no visitors the whole time he spent there."

"What about lawyers?" All eyes turn to Hope, "even slimy psychopaths like him are entitled to have lawyers."

"And psychologists and therapists, they thrive on these high profile cases," says Faith, "they are always visiting and they would not be logged as a specific visitor to him as they would do rounds with other detainees as well."

Hocht and Gibbs look at each other, _finally some progress_.

"Tony, call the penitentiary, I want the list of very single lawyer and psychologist that might have contact with Jarod as he stayed there."

"On it Boss," he starts dialing.

"McGee,"

"I'm verifying all internet access connections made from and to the prison, maybe there is a digital trail somewhere, boss."

"Ziva,"

"I will check with Abby if she finished processing the tire tracks we brought her earlier," and she leaves.

Gibbs looks at Hotch, who is looking down with a frown on his face. He approaches the FBI agent, who looks up, "we never considered an accomplice," "you never had evidence of one; you were expecting him to follow the established M.O." He looks at the BAU team leader, and understands the burden of command he has, "it was an honest mistake," "you don't understand," Hotch shakes his head, "if Agent McGee's theory is correct, the stakes are much higher," Joy's family is listening to the conversation attentively, "because if he was being fed information, this detailed information, of where she works, where she sleeps, her family meetings, there can be only one source," Gibbs looks questioningly at Hotch, who says sadly "us." Gibbs' stare becomes steely, and he can feel his gut start twisting, "he could only have that detailed information if someone from the FBI, with internal access to its files, gave it to him."

Faith and Hope stand up and approach the two teamleaders, "are you suggesting what I think you are? That we somehow have a mole, a …" Faith can not find a proper noun to express the fury she is feeling.

Hotch nods, "how many people knew that Joy would be making the cake for Steffy's birthday?"

Faith frowns in concentration, and her eyes get huge when she realizes what he meant, "only family," she whispers.

"And maybe some close colleagues in the FBI," says Hope, glancing at Faith and turning to Hotch and Gibbs, "we mentioned it in the Cafeteria that we would get together with the family, but then, we never really imagined that it should be a secret."

"Who heard you in the FBI cafeteria?"

Faith pales even more, and looks at Hope, "anyone who was sitting in our vicinity would have heard," she looks at Gibbs guiltily, "we weren't exactly trying to be discreet at that moment."

Reid approaches the sisters, "who was in the cafeteria at that time?"

Faith is starting to panic, "I don't remember, a lot of people…"

Emily stands up, "when was that? When did you say out loud that Joy was making your daughter's cake?"

Faith is thinking hard, with her eyes closed, "I don't remember, I don't remember."

"Just after the Fiedler's case," says Hope, and looks Hoch in the eye, "two weeks ago, on a Monday."

Hotch turns to his agents, "Morgan, Prentiss, go to headquarters, I need the surveillance videos from two weeks ago from the cafeteria, I need all agents identified asap." They gather their things and go.

"What do you mean you can't give me the files until morning? I don't care who you have to wake up, I need those files now, the life of a federal agent might be at stake," says DiNozzo on the telephone, "listen miss, you don't…." he hears someone on the other line denying his request, "listen…" he hears more talking, and Faith approaches DiNozzo's desk and stretches out her hand, asking for the phone. DiNozzo is still trying to argue with the person on the other side, but Faith loses her patience and grabs the phone from his ear, "Whom am I speaking to?" she listens, "Officer Williams, I'm Special Agent Faith Buchanan, Section Chief of the White Collar crime division of the FBI," her voice becomes pure ice, and her fury is slowly simmering, "I will give you fair warning, and it will be only once, I can and I will ransack the finances of your boss, your boss' boss and everyone you ever might have contacted within the last ten years of your miserable existence looking for even a hint of corruption, money laundering or power abuse in your little jail, and believe me," she squints her eyes, imagining them feeling pain, lots of pain, "I will find it, and when I find it, you will rot your sorry little ass in a federal jail until the flesh fall off your bones, and when you are dying of some terrible sexually transmitted disease spread to you by way of the repetitive rapes you will suffer in the jail, you will remember me, that you destroyed your life all because you haven't complied with a single request of a name list in the middle of the night."

She pauses to breathe and smiles sweetly, "oh thank you, your assistance will be highly appreciated," she delicately puts the phone back on its place, and looks at DiNozzo, whose mouth is hanging open and whose eyes are staring at the oldest Buchanan sister, terrified.

She smiles slyly and says, "you will have the list in your email in ten minutes," she turns looks at Gibbs and Hotch who are staring at her, shocked, and goes to sit by her parents.

Gibbs and Hotch are staring at her, and Joseph looks at Maggie, and shakes his head. "She got that temper from you," she shrugs, "you can't deny that it is effective, can you?"

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Reviews are food for my soul.

a/n: hehehe I love this family.


	14. Escaping

_****__****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

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_**Escaping**_

It was the smell of dried blood that woke up Joy. She slowly opened her eyes, with difficulty, as one was swollen shut from Jarod's tender touch. With consciousness came the awareness of pain, the bite of cold and humidity in her naked body and discomfort of the scratches and a deeper pain down on her body. She gingerly sits on the bed, careful with all her pains and aches.

She slowly closes her shirt, covering her hurt breasts and giving herself the minimum of modesty. She looks at the table and sees the boxes of Chinese takeout still on the table, and her belly reminds her that it has been more than twenty four hours since she had something to eat. She leaves the bed, slowly, gathers her trousers from where he threw them, steps into the legs and closes the buttons, despite the discomfort it creates against the chaffed skin.

It is better to be dressed and in pain than naked and vulnerable. She approaches the table and starts to eat the food in the boxes, all the while studying the basement where he hid her this time.

It is in much better condition than the last one, and she is alone. She says a little prayer of thanks to the heavens; at least he hadn't been able to hurt anybody else but her this time. There are no decomposing bodies hanging from hooks on the ceiling and there are no innocent victims lying beaten and broken in their own waste after months of captivity, as it was in his last hideout.

She eats everything in the boxes, there were three of them. She stuffs herself with food, as she is not sure when she will be given food again. So it is better to be prepared. She stands up and checks the limits of the chain again. Even standing with the chain completely straight, she was still several feet away from his horror tool wall and cabinet. She shivered lightly seeing the assortment of things he had in store for her, and she knew that, if she didn't find a way to escape, she might not make it this time. There are hammers, screwdrivers, and a leather whip hanging from hooks on a wooden support on the wall.

God only knew what type of tools he had in the drawers. She leans her body forward, trying to reach the tools with her feet, but there are still four feet between her body and the wall.

_Think Buchanan, think._

She looks at it, frustrated. She returns to the table, which is made of recycled wood. She knocks her hand accidentally on the wood, and moans with pain. She looks at it fixedly for a second, and leans down and looks at the underside of the table. The wood grain shows some failure on the surface and she softly runs her hand on it, feeling the texture. She takes a step back, sits on her own legs and looks at the wall and frowns. The chair is not stuck to the floor. The table is not stuck to the floor. What if…

She stands up, gets one of the chairs and breaks it on the table.

CRACK.

It is broken into pieces. With one of the broken legs in her hands, she turns the table upside down and starts to try to break its legs and, once that it is done, she starts hitting the body trying to fracture the frail wood. There is a small crack, and she keeps on hitting.

_Come on, COME ON._

The table could not withstand the attack, and the recycled wood breaks on the glued junction. She now has two long surfaces, of approximately five feet by two. She grabs one of them and uses it as an extension to her arm, trying to reach the wall. It touches the tools, but none of them falls.

_Come on!_

After two failed attempts, the hammer falls on the floor, and she uses the wood to bring the hammer closer to her body. With the hammer in her hands, she approaches the clamp that holds the chain to the wall, and tries to break it down.

She doesn't hear any noise upstairs, so she uses all her strength and determination to break the link that keeps her prisoner.

He had cemented it to the wall, and firmed it to four thick screws. Her only chance was if she could break the first link of the chain. If she did that, she would be free.

She hits it repetitively with the hammer, but the chain is a thick one, it only bends a little, it does not break.

_Come on, come on. _

Her arms start to get tired, and her body is shaking with fear and pain. Her hands are wet with cold sweat, more from pure terror than from the physical activity.

She stops a moment to rest her arms, and leans over and supports her tired arms against the wall, and rests her burning forehead against the wall. She closes her eyes, trying in vain to keep the terror tears to fall from her eyes.

_Oh God, oh God, please, please please,_ she murmurs. She opens her eyes, and looks down, behind the bed. There she finds a piece of rope that he had probably separated to tie her down later on. She leaves the hammer on the bed, and leans down and looks under the bed. She stretches her hand and gets the rope, and with it in her hand she looks at the tool cupboard, thinking furiously.

Decision made, she makes a cowboy knot in it, just like those seen in rodeos that the cowboys use to catch errant bulls or horses.

_Ok, Joy, you grew up in Montana, you can do it_, she slowly approaches the cupboard, aiming the hooks, _it is not that difficult, you've seen it done before, s_he starts to circle the rope over her head, preparing to launch it on the air, _you can do it, I'm sure you can_, she throws the rope.

And it hits the wall, far away from the hooks.

_DAMMIT._

_Ok, don't panic, you can try again._

_Come on,_ she raises her arm, and prepares to strike, and lets it fly.

The rope falls on the hooks.

YES.

She slowly pulls the rope, afraid it might fall. It runs slowly by the hooks with the tools. Once the rope is pulled tight, she approaches the bed and uses one of its legs, firmly bolted to the floor, as leverage. She passes one of the tips of the rope under the bed, and holds it firmly in her hands. She sits down on the floor, supports her legs on the bed frame and pulls with as much strength as she can.

The whole cupboard falls down, and the tools are spread out on the floor of the basement. She quickly starts looking for a tool, any tool that might help her. She soon finds a metal saw, screwdrivers and an assortment of other things she brings to the bed.

She starts to use the metal saw, but she realizes that it will take too much time, time she doesn't have.

She puts the screwdriver on the space of the link, gets the hammer and start hitting it, on the hope to open the link enough to slip it out of the hook on the wall, she sees the link starting to give, and she hammers with more determination.

The screwdriver breaks under the strain, but she keeps hitting the link, as it had started to break under the hits.

It opens a space between the link, barely half an inch, and she keeps hammering until the space is wide enough and she unhooks it from the wall.

_One problem down, now countless to go._

She gets the pillow out of the pillowcase, and starts to put things into the pillowcase that she might need. The hammer, another screwdriver. She gets the thick duvet and rips a part of it, and puts in the pillowcase as well. She looks at the cupboard on the floor, and starts to search among the things on the floor.

_Duct tape. Uhm._

She climbs the stairs, with the screwdriver in her hand as a knife, listening for any sign of activity upstairs. With all the noise she had made, she knows he would have already come downstairs if he had been home, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

She uses the screwdriver to get the screws out of the doorknob, and opens it by the system inside.

She looks down the corridor, and slowly walks down to the living room. The game heads are staring at her.

She goes to the kitchen, and looks for anything she might carry, and find only stale bread and some old cans of soup, well beyond its expiration date.

She goes to the window, and studies the outside. There is no sign of his car, and the sky is clouded, not giving any hint of what time it might be. She tries the door, finds it unlocked, and steps out, her first steps to freedom. She leaves the house and looks at the woods, woods everywhere. The dirt road leads down the mountain.

She looks up at the skies, and goes up to the edge of the woods, leaving a trail of her bare feet on the dust showing that she left on a straight path from the door.

Once she gets to the woods, and she feels the crack of dead leaves and living earth under her feet, she starts to circle the house, going to the back of it. Once she is in a completely different direction, she starts to run.

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Reviews are food for my soul


	15. Balls on the wall, Heads on a spike

_****__****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

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_**Balls on the wall, Heads on a spike**_

After a very busy night, the BAU and NCIS team meet again very early to show their findings. They had the video footage of the cafeteria of the FBI, and were working diligently doing a background check on everyone who had been there on that fatidic day when Hope and Faith were in there.

Meanwhile, the NCIS team was doing the background on every state psychologist and lawyer to enter the prison, and who might have had access to Jarod.

They are poring over the names, frustrated with the slow going process.

"McGee," "yes, Boss," "any luck with the internet access."

"Besides porn and a couple of e-mail providers, there is nothing that raises the flag on the accesses from the prison. The amount is huge, I've contacted cybercrimes and they are giving me a hand to check it through."

He nods to McGee.

"Tony," he calls out.

"Me and Ziva and Derek we are going through the prison lists, boss. The detainees were visited by forty two psychologists and one hundred forty two lawyers, who might or not have come in contact with our unsub," he scratches his head tiredly, he had been working non-stop since the previous morning, with just a few hours of sleep, "it might take a while," he says.

"This name looks familiar," says Derek suddenly, sitting straight on his chair.

Hotch approaches him, "which name?"

"This one," he points to one in the list, and Hotch reads it out aloud, "Warren Burns," Derek nods and continues, "according to the logs he visited the county jail three times on the period of six months, under the guise of research for his book, the last one…"

"Three weeks before Jarod's escape," says Hotch, looking at the date logs. He gives the papers back to Derek, "find him."

"Already did," says Hope, without looking up from the background files of everyone in the cafeteria, she stands up and goes to Gibbs, with the file open in her hands, and starts to recite, "Special Agent Warren Scot Burns, forensic specialist from the LA office," she turns to the plasma where the still of the FBI cafeteria is showing, "requested a transfer to DC office one month ago as he wanted to be closer to his sick mother, and," she points to the screen, "was sitting right behind us in the cafeteria."

The agents look at the screen, and see a mousy man with glasses, and who is sitting eating his sandwich, but they can clearly see that he is carefully paying attention to the group of agents where the two sisters are the center of the attention.

Gibbs frowns at the picture, and without turning to his team, says, "let's get him."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The team traces Agent Burns' mobile phone, and find him working diligently at a crime scene downtown with another FBI team.

The Special Agent in Charge at the scene thinks it is strange that another FBI team appears on the scene, and once he is informed that the BAU team is present, he rushes to meet them.

"Hey guys, not that I don't appreciate you coming, but this is a very straight kidnapping case," he looks curiously at the NCIS agents, "no need of profilers in this," Gibbs shakes his head at the obnoxious man, and tries to enter the crime scene, just to be stopped by the FBI agent, who puts a hand on his chest to stop him, "sorry mister, you can't enter, you will contaminate the scene," Gibbs is not happy, and turn his hardest stare to the agent, who gulps but doesn't back down. His own agents take a step back, waiting for the fireworks to start flying, but Hotch intervenes "we're not here for the crime scene, we're here for your crime tech,"

"What?"

"Is Agent Burns in here?"

"Yes, but what do you want with him?" with this answer, Gibbs simply enters the scene, followed by his team, and the BAU enter right after him, and they spread out in the apartment.

Hotch and Gibbs walk by the living room, where the crying mother is bawling her eyes out, as her estranged husband had kidnapped their only child, and goes directly to the man taking fingerprints on the window sill.

"What?" she mutters.

"Special Agent Burns," Hotch calls out, and Burns looks up, sees the BAU team and the NCIS team staring at him, and bolts.

CRACK.

Just to be stopped by a direct jab in the chin by a very angry McGee.

"McGee!" Gibbs shouts, and Tony stops McGee from jumping at the fallen man again. Derek approaches the fallen agent, cuffs him and reads him his Miranda rights and, none too gently, brings the dizzy man to his feet again, and hisses, "be happy that he was the one who hit you, if it were my girl," his voice lowers, "you would be only a bloody pulp," and carries the cuffed man outside.

Gibbs approaches McGeeand headslaps him, hard "What were you thinking?" he shouts.

"Boss, I…"

"One more stunt like that, you're off the case."

"Boss, I…" he has tears in his eyes.

Gibbs stares at his agent, who is begging him with his eyes, and shakes his head, "losing control now won't help her, Timothy."

He puts a hand on McGee's shoulder, squeezes and follows the BAU agent.

"You ok, man?" Tony is looking worried about his teammate, who is rubbing his face with shaking hands.

"Well done, McGee," says Ziva, who approaches her teammate and holds one of his arms, and starts guiding him out of the apartment, "I would have preferred the use of a knife," she says deadpan, and that brings a shaky smile to his face, "or maybe a paperclip."

McGee laughs, albeit sadly.

"Crazy ninja assassin," Tony mutters.

The FBI SAC and the other agents and the distressed mother just look at the agents leaving.

"What the hell just happened here?" he looks at the other agents, who shrug, confused.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Special Agent Warren Burns is in the interrogation room, simmering, while Gibbs and Hotch are staring at him from the observation room.

Meanwhile, the other agents are frantically investigating Agent Burns. They find out that he was friends with Special Agent Eric Gomez, the agent from LA BAU team who had gone berserk and killed all his colleagues. They had graduated together at Quantico.

He had been one of the moving forces behind the Internal Affairs investigation of the FBI against Joy, as he was adamant that she was damaged the same way that Agent Gomez had been by his captivity.

McGee is tracing anything and everything Burns did since he arrived in DC, and stops when he sees a hand putting a steaming cup of coffee in front of his keyboard. He looks up and sees Joy's mother, with a carton with three other coffees in one hand and a donut box in the other. She offers it open to him, "breakfast, son?" He smiles at the fiery old lady, and grabs one of the glazed ones, bites into it and goes back to work.

Hope and Faith are giving the BAU team coffees in the bullpen, and Maggie gives the other coffees and donuts to Tony and Ziva, who are also working diligently at their desks. She keeps one to herself.

She moves one chair and puts it close to McGee, and starts sipping her coffee, and is watching him typing in the computer. He notices her watching him, and smiles shyly at her and goes back to typing. He tenses when she stretches her hand and puts it on his arm, and delicately takes his hand in hers, and studies the bruised knuckles, resultant of the punch he gave the suspect in interrogation.

Director Vance approaches the agents, "Agent McGee," he looks at McGee and Maggie holding hands, "what is this I heard about you attacking a fellow agent?"

McGee gets his hand out of Maggie's grasp, and stands up to talk with the director, "Director Vance, I can explain."

Maggie is not letting him to hang to dry, "For crying out loud, how did you expect him to react? He does have red blood in his veins, he's not a mummy."

"Mrs. Buchanan, you'd better stay out of this discussion, I'm talking to my agent in my agency about his behaviorat one of our crime scenes."

She's not done yet, "if he had done nothing, I would seriously think that there's something wrong with him," she looks back at McGee, "you showed yourself worthy of our family," McGee smiles at the dragon lady, and she turns back to Vance, who says, "that's not the posture of a NCIS agent," she interrupts him again, "but that's the posture of a true Buchanan," she squints her eyes and approaches Vance, who gulps but does not step back, predatorily "be glad that none of my daughters or my sons were there, because the damage would have been much greater than only one cracked jaw."

Vance opens his mouth, and she continues, "because we don't take lightly anyone who hurts one of us, and we have a certain treatment for those who dare do that," she looks at her girls, who are standing by Gibbs' desk sipping coffee, they salute with their cups and say in unison, "their balls on the wall, their heads on a spike."

She looks at Vance again, "now, let the boy do his job."

Gibbs comes to the bullpen, leaving Hotch observing the perp, and immediately sees the tension between the matriarch and the director. "Something I should know?"

Maggie waves her hand, "nothing important, Mr. Gibbs, here, here," she gets a steaming cup of coffee from his desk and gives him, "here is your coffee."

He looks at Vance, who is staring at the dragon lady, and sips his coffee and smiles, "ohh, good coffee." She snaps at him, "of course it is good coffee, it is almost pure coffee grain in it, almost as black as motor oil," she moves with difficulty and sits again by McGee, who is smiling at the snarky old lady, she looks at Tony who is also smiling at her, "I've seen airplanes fuel with a lower levels of octane than his coffee."

Director Vance leaves, after giving Maggie, who smiles sweetly back at him, a poisonous stare.

Gibbs sits down and looks at the papers of his desk, "it keeps my engine running," she snorts, "of course it does, it could raise the dead, if given in the proper amounts," He lifts his eyes from his paperwork, and looks at the dragon lady who is smiling at him, "if your engine did not run, then we would have problems," he smiles at her, and look at his own agents, "what have you got?"

"In the last eight weeks, every single weekend Agent Burns would spend part of his off weekend in Charlottesville, Maryland, according to his cell phone records," says McGee.

"Allegedly, he would be visiting his seventy nine year old senile mother, Olivia Burns, who is in a sanatorium on the outskirts of the city," says Emily, presenting Gibbs with copies of the insurance documents from the FBI archives.

"He had been receiving her benefit checks faithfully for the last three years, as he has her power of attorney, but…" says Derek, and Reid completes, "She's dead. She has been dead for two years," Gibbs stands up and silently asks to see the records Reid is looking at. He gives them to Gibbs, "we also called the sanatorium, she had been there from the late nineties onwards, but after 2006 he withdrew her from the program and insisted on homecare, with a fulltime nurse," Gibbs looks up, "that's expensive," Reid agrees, "much beyond the assistance paid by the FBI, in these types of cases," Gibbs shakes his head, "where was the money coming from?"

"It wasn't," says McGee. Gibbs turns to him, and he continues, "with her dead, he still was cashing in her benefit check _and_ the assistance by the FBI, all under the guise of looking after his sick mother," "Where was he depositing the checks? Directly in his own account?" "No, he was depositing it in several bank accounts," McGee keeps typing, and several different bank records appear in the plasma, "I'm still tracking them all, Boss."

"Find me them," orders Gibbs, he looks at the other agents, and leaves, going to interrogation.

Maggie taps McGee lightly on his arm, "good work, son." He smiles at the old lady, and turns his total attention to his research. Maggie sighs, tired.

Reverend Buchanan approaches his wife and gives her his hand, "Time to go, Maggie," "Why? I want to stay here," "no, don't you remember, we have to do _that_." "Do what?" she asks impatiently, "_That_," Joseph stresses, and wiggles his eyebrows at her, she looks at him as if he lost his mind, "but now?" Joseph looks up, and prays for a little patience, "no woman, not _that_, the other thing," he keeps talking and she doesn't understand him, "what other thing?" he keeps quiet, staring at her trying to silently convey an important message. After a while, she blinks, "ahhhhh, _that_, now I remember," she holds his hand and uses him as support to stand, "why didn't you just say it?" he looks at her impatiently, "wasn't that exactly what I was doing?"

They say bye to the agents and hurriedly leave the room, leaving the agents confused in their wake.

Derek looks at the sisters, who were still serenely sipping their coffees, "what were they talking about? Were they really talking about… _that_?" _Old people having sex, urgh_, thinks Derek.

"With mom and dad, you never know," says Hope.

"Probably they were talking about the testing of a new missile," says Faith.

"Or the coming of the four horsemen of the apocalypse," retorts Hope, the two sisters look at each other, and snicker.

"Anyway," says Hope, "you'd better not know, because when it is time," she smiles at the direction her parents left, "you will find out, and it is usually with a big bang."

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Reviews are food for my soul.


	16. Woods

_****__****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

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_**Woods**_

Jarod leaves the supermarket in Charlottesville, and drives the old pickup truck up to the hunting cabin in Shenondoah National Park. Since he had been contacted by that stupid FBI agent, he had waited patiently for his time with his Servant.

That idiot really believed that the Servant was as evil as he was, so she was a threat that had to be eliminated. He provided the money, the tools, even the perfect hideout.

He drove up the old hunting road, driving slowly in the gravel. He was quite happy. Life was finally going back to normal.

He stops the car before the cabin, and stops the engine. He gathers his shopping, he had bought nice stuff for the Servant, some underwear just for his eyes, some bubble baths, she would be quite happy with him and his gifts.

His smiles stop when he goes to the foyer and sees the door open. He did not leave it open. He enters the room and sees that the door to the basement, at the end of the corridor, is open.

He drops his shopping bags, and runs to the basement. He finds chaos, the tool cupboard is on the floor, the table and the chairs are broken, and the most alarming thing: the Servant escaped. Again.

His roar of fury could be heard several meters into the forest, scaring the birds and wild life around the cabin. He comes back to the living room, shouting and throwing things on the floor. He knew her, he had broken her spirit, after his rape there was nothing but an empty shell there, she was finally his, she would obey, and still she wants to escape.

The game heads watch his destructive fury, impassively.

He looks at the forest, goes to one cabinet in the corner, opens it and gets a hunting shotgun, the same one used to hunt the game hanging on the wall.

He walks out, his breath becoming a fine mist in the cold air of the afternoon, and start looking for clues of where she might have gone. He sees the footprints of her naked feet leaving the house, leading directly to the forestin a straight line, roars and runs into the forest.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Going in the totally opposite direction, Joy is still walking fast, hugging to her chest the pillowcase with some tools and the rest of the chain which held her prisoner. Her eyes would briefly look up, ahead, then down, paying attention to where she was putting the soles of her feet.

Living in Montana, she always played in the fields and woods surrounding the property of the Buchanan family. Even though there was a big age difference, she absorbed like a sponge the survival techniques Johnny would teach her, as soon as he came home on leave from the marines. He recognized that need to learn in Joy, and bonded with her as soon as she had been adopted, and whenever he came home from boot camp, both would go hiking and camping in the wild areas close to their home.

_Don't leave __a __trail, don't leave __a __trail, step only on dead leaves, lots of dead leaves, don't snap twigs, don't leave __a __trail_, she kept chanting his teachings in her head, repeatedly.

She stops for a while; she had been running apparently for hours. She sits down, and studies the soles of her bleeding feet. They are cut, and purple marks are marring the soles and her ankles, the result of places she hit on her run.

She opens the pillowcase, gets out the piece of the duvet she tore, cuts it into two pieces, and delicately puts each of her feet in the soft material. She gets the duct tape, and starts rolling it around the duvet, firming it on her feet. This way, she improvises soft shoes, which will protect her feet, not leave recognizable footprints, as the form of her feet is almost round with the duvet in it, and will also keep the cuts and wounds dry.

She puts the duct tape back in the pillowcase and looks up. The sky is opening a little, and the sun can be seen trying to pass through the boughs of the trees.

She looks around, and every single direction looks the same. She looks up.

She starts to climb one of the trees, and for that she uses the length of the chain as a rope. Her progress is slow, but she is determined. Once she is a couple of meters high, she tries to look above the body of the trees, searching for any sign of civilization. She closes her eyes, desolated, when she sees that she is in one side of a deep valley, with a green carpet changing into the yellow and red colors of autumn, covering the earth as far as the eye can see.

_Oh man, I'm totally screwed._

She opens her eyes, and keeps looking around, _which direction should I go?_ She looks back in the direction she came, the forest does not change in density, and there is no sign of the cabin she was running from.

The sound of birds catch her attention, she looks up and sees the V formation of geese flying south, slowly crossing the sky in their trip that announce the coming of the winter. She looks at the direction of the cabin. _The cabin is south,_ she looks in the other direction, _then north is good._

She slowly goes down, reaches the floor and gingerly steps on her handmade shoes, she takes a breather, looks back in the direction she came from, collects her things in the pillowcase and starts a fast march going north.

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	17. Interrogation styles

_****__****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

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**_Interrogation styles_**

Gibbs and Hotchner, with the information provided by both teams of agents, step into the interrogation room.

"I don't know what you think you are doing, but you have no right to arrest me and drag me here, I'm a federal agent and…"

"Ah, now you are a sleazy federal agent, aren't you, agent Burns?" Hotch leans on the table, supporting his weight on the surface, staring at the sitting agent's face.

"But when you visited the federal prison you introduced yourself as a psychologist, researching your book on convicted criminals. Why is that?"

"Because I was doing research, I'm planning to write a book, that's not a crime," he retorts, "but presenting yourself with fake documentation, informing prison authorities that you are psychologist, that's a crime," says Gibbs, who is standing by the mirror, with his arms folded.

He approaches and stares the FBI agent down, "by the way, you presented the same documentation from your mother's psychologist," Burns looks at Gibbs, without expression on his face, "which you stole on your last visit to the sanatorium."

Gibbs leans down and stares down the agent, who is starting to fidget, "how is your mother?"

He looks down and left, "she is getting better, as long as she is properly medicated she is fine."

"No, she is not fine," says Hotch, "she is dead," Burns looks at Hotch, "and unless you start telling us the truth, we might also start to believe that this is another crime we will have to add to the long list we already have," he looks at Gibbs, who starts to recite, "impersonation of medical personal, accessory to murder, qualified murder, abuse of power,…" Gibbs stares the agent down, who doesn't back up, "the list goes on and on, so I'm going to ask you only one time, WHERE IS MY AGENT?" Gibbs barks at Burns, who looks at Gibbs with a calculating smile and stays quiet.

Gibbs goes around the table and grabs Burns by his shirt, and lifts him up, and barks, "WHERE IS MY AGENT?"

Burns gives him an ironic smile, and says, "if he keeps the programmed schedule, she's already dead."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NICS

In the observation room full of people, McGee folds as if hit by a punch in his stomach, Tony and Ziva support him, and Hope and Faith have horrified expressions on their faces.

Derek, Prentiss and Reid are looking at the interview, and turn to the other agents. "He is lying, he's only trying to prove he still has control of the situation," says Reid, with certainty. "Even though he is a crime tech, he left a clear trail of clues so we could find him, the video of the cafeteria, using his own name to visit Jarod, he wanted to be found," "but why did he want Joy dead? Just because she worked with Eric?" Faith wants to know, and hugs her younger sister for support.

McGee looks at the smug FBI agent in the interrogation room with pain and hatred, "I should have punched him more," Tony taps him on the back, and sighs, "next time, I will help you," McGee looks his colleague, and only sees compassion. He takes a deep breath and turns to the other profilers, "do you think she is still alive?"

Prentiss approaches McGee and looks through the tinted glass, "there is no way to be certain, but Burns is certain that he had control over Jarod's actions, which he clearly doesn't, as Jarod always kept his victims for a while, to torture them and prolong their suffering as long as possible." She looks McGee straight in the eye, "he would never have killed her before playing his little games, and in order to do that he has to break her spirit first, and he wouldn't be able to do that in only one or two days," she puts a hand on his shoulder, squeezes and looks back to the interrogation. He sighs and looks through the mirror too.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Where did Jarod hide her?"

"What? My clues weren't enough for you? Didn't you like my little game?"

"Why Joy? Why did you help Jarod kill a teenager, and kidnap Joy? Was it because you couldn't discredit her in the FBI?"

"No, you got it all wrong…"

"Where is my agent?"

"SHE IS DEAD."

"SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD SINCE THE BEGINNING."

The two leaders stay silent for a minute.

"These profilers, they think they know it all. I told Eric, since the beginning," he makes a motion with his hand, as if he was pointing to something on the table, "the facts are these, the unsub is this, the evidence points to that, but Eric," he laughs an evil laugh, "Eric never heard me, he would always double check with _her_," he says the last word with disgust on his voice, "as if she had the whole fountain in knowledge inside that thick head of hers."

He looks at the agents, and his eyes look glazed, "Eric never really gave any value to my work, my input," he throws a poisonous look at the agents looking at him, "so I laughed when those two were taken, because I knew then," he laughs, "I knew that finally they would believe my reports," his eyes become glazed again, "I told them that he was keeping the bodies, as trophies, but they didn't believe me, and they paid for that."

"That's just because they didn't accept your insight?" Hotch wants to know, in an even tone of voice, but inside he is horrified: profilers usually interpret the forensic evidence, and sometimes ignore the conjectures of the techs as it does not necessarily fit the profile, that's a common practice, and if that all happened because of that, what a waste of life.

"They didn't respect my work," he mutters, "and they both paid for it," "Eric Gomez committed suicide," says Gibbs, and Burns hiccups and laughs, "oh, yeah, he did," he looks with glazed eyes, "he sure did."

"What are you implying?" Gibbs' gut is twisting in an alarming rate, as Burns smiles again, "he had a little help."

"What do you mean?" Hotch is worried as well.

"I might have slipped something in his water," he smiles, "he always got higher than a kite on painkillers, they gave him very vivid hallucinations. That's why he hated staying in hospitals," he looks down, and twists his fingers, and he is fascinated by them, "he never liked to lose control."

"We did the toxicological test, there was nothing out of the norm on his body," says Hotch, and Burns smiles, "of course there wasn't, but you did found painkillers in it, didn't you?" Burns shakes his head at the ingenuity of the FBI agents, "he had already stopped taking his medicines a long time ago, and he'd rather feel pain than out of control."

"You killed an FBI agent," hisses Gibbs, and Burns looks at him, "no, I just gave him a push on the right direction, he pulled the trigger," Gibbs, very pissed off, hits the table and shouts, "and now you came after _my_ agent."

"I had to!" He shrugs, "she never came back," he shrugs again, "I kept waiting, they started the Internal Affairs investigation, and she gave her testimony and I kept waiting for her to hang, but she never came back. It took me months to track her down to NCIS."

Gibbs shakes his head, barely containing his fury, "if she is dead, there won't be a jail in this world that can protect you from me," he hisses.

"I believe I can take it from here, Agent Gibbs," Maggie says, opening the door and closing after herself, interrupting the interrogation.

"Mrs. Buchanan, what the hell…" "and you two better leave, I do not want to implicate you two in what I'm going to do," she says firmly, looking at the two agents.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Meanwhile, Reverend Buchanan had entered the observation room and was shooing everyone out of the room.

"Dad, what are you doing?" Faith looks at her own father as if he lost his mind.

"Faith, believe me, you don't want to know, now leave," he points to the door, and forces her and Hope out, "Go," "Mr. Buchanan," starts to say Reid, but there is steel in the reverend's voice when he says, "everyone out, what is going to happen is not for your eyes and ears, now leave." The agents look at the reverend, and look between themselves. Faith remembers her father with such determination only in his years as colonel.

"Dad?" she asks softly, and he kisses her head, "go, pumpkin," he looks at the techs, and orders, "kill the video, kill the audio," the tech looks at the NCIS agents, obeys and leaves the room. He shoos everyone out, closes the door and locks it after them.

He looks at the interrogation room, and at the man who dared to harm his daughter, and his wife, shooing the two powerful team leaders out of the room also.

"I hope you know what you are doing, Maggie," he whispers, and touches his forehead on the cool glass and waits for the show.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Once she closed the door behind Gibbs and Hotch, she looks at the mirror surface and hears a small tap on the glass.

Her husband had been successfulin his mission, the tape and audio was off, and there would be no witnesses.

She looks at the vermin, yes vermin, sitting in the interrogation room, cuffed to the table. She serenely sits down in front of him and studies him like a bug under the microscope. She carefully puts a folder, with TOP SECRET written on it, on the table.

"The Unites States government has several test projects ongoing, in different facilities throughout the country, in order to enhance or better protect our deployed soldiers abroad. There is a lot of space for medical research, government funded research, and there are several objectives that are being sought now."

She smiles coldly at the man before her, who just shrugs at her, uninterested at her explanation.

"Their biggest difficulty is to find viable subjects for their tests. Even though initially they used enlisted soldiers as lab rats, they soon saw it as a waste of good soldiers, as it took years to prepare them to obey blindly rules," her eyes become colder than her voice, "that's why the government now uses condemned convicts." The man starts to fidget. She points to the folder in her hand.

"And this is your new assignment," she opens the folder, and start looking at the papers on it.

"Once you are charged for your crimes, you will be transferred not to a normal prison, but to an undisclosed location where you will be subjected to all possible tests known to man, and you will be injected with several diseases and their antidotes so that they can verify the efficacy (or not) of them." She stands up, and leans towards the man, who had become pale, "you will not die," she smiles, "death should not be a punishment, but a reward, and you will linger for many months, maybe years, while your body becomes the laboratory for the United States armed forces."

She walks around the table, and puts her hand on his shoulder, and she feels his body shaking lightly under her arm, "all records about your existence will be erased, you will never be remembered again, and no one will mourn your demise, because no one will be there for you." She squeezes his shoulder, and leans down, and whispers in his year, "and when you are begging to die, and your flesh is all gone, you will remember that you got into that situation because" she squeezes harder, and he whimpers in pain, "_you dared to hurt my daughter."_

She turns around and starts leaving the room.

"Ma'am please, I don't want to die like that please please please." He starts crying, "please I will tell you please."

She looks at the mirror, and returns and throws the folder on the table.

"If you don't want that to be your future," she leans down towards his face, "talk."

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	18. Cavalry

_****__****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

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_**Cavalry**_

There was a fury of activity in the bullpen, as the agents were putting on the bulletproof vests and waiting for more weapons to be brought from the armory.

Joseph and Maggie were calmly sitting on chairs by Joy's desk holding hands.

Each agent armed themselves to the teeth, and the Director came up to them.

Hotch starts his speech:

"This is a rescue mission, the accomplice identified as Jarod's hideout his father's hunting cabin in a back road on Shenondoah National Park, in the outskirts of Charlottesville. He is to be considered armed and dangerous, do not engage unless you have your partner covering for you."

Reid says, "it is of extreme importance that you do not shoot to kill," he looks at the NCIS agents, and they look at him, pissed off, "I say that because, if he moved Joy's hideout, it will be extremely difficult to find it if he is dead," he looks firmly at Gibbs, who is coldly looking at him, "it would be lost time and effort if we kill him and, because of that, we don't find her injured, or, if she is dead, her body."

The Director speaks, "The local police have already been contacted, they are arranging dogs and will meet you at the landing point. I also requested transport to take you to the park, and they will be here in ten minutes."

"Actually they are already here, Director," says Joseph, letting go of his wife's hands and standing up. All agents look at him, and he shrugs, "there are three Air Force helicopters and another medievac on standby across the road, I had requested them as soon as you brought the dirt bag into custody."

The Director looks at him, surprised, "How?" The reverend just shrugs, "I still have friends in the Air Force, and," he smiles with a twinkle in his eyes, "the girls' godfather is a four star general in the Pentagon. I just had to call in some favors."

Tony fiddles with his life vest, and mutters to Ziva, "those must have been some hell of a big favors." Ziva approaches Maggie, who is just sitting watching the activities, and leans towards the old lady, "how did you convince him to give Jarod's hideout?" she is curious, as she usually is very good in intimidating people, but that old fragile lady turned the arrogant bastard into a crying pile of mush and nerves in just a couple of minutes.

Maggie just smiled, and taps lightly on Ziva's hand, "choices, my dear, it is always a matter of choices," Ziva simply looks at her, confused.

"Ziva lets go, it's time," Tony calls and they start to leave for the transports. McGee looks back and sees Joseph hugging Maggie, comforting her, he thinks for a moment and goes towards Joy's parents. He stops in front of them, he even opens his mouth to speak, but his brain fails and he can't say anything. Joseph smiles, and Maggie lifts a hand and touches his cheek, "I know son, I know," he looks at this old lady, and finally understands why Joy is so crazy about her family, "just bring her home, ok?" He nods at them, and leaves with the rest of team.

Gibbs looks back at the couple standing in the bullpen, nods at McGee who enters into the elevator with Tony and Ziva and his look crosses with Joseph's. Both men nod to each other, Gibbs enters the elevator, and goes down with his team.

The silence reigns in the squad room finally.

Joseph sighs, and looks down at Maggie. Hope and Faith, even though they wanted to participate in the rescue mission, were vetted out and went back to the Hoover, to request the reopening of the investigation of the massacre in LA. If the new facts revealed are proved true, then many people will have to apologize for the slanderfest they made towards the deceased profilers in LA.

Maggie looks at her husband, her companion for more than forty years, "do you think they will find her?" "oh yes, they will," he says, convict. He frowns, "I just hope that they find her alive." Maggie hides her face in his chest, and he hugs her firmly.

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Reviews are food for my soul.


	19. Warnings

_****__****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

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_**Warnings**_

After looking for tracks in the dead leaves for one hour, and finding none, Jarod returns to the house. He starts to look around the house for any other trail, and finds a smudged footprint on the back of the house. He smiles, and starts to follow it.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Joy had been running for hours. She stops for a moment and leans against a tree. She tries to catch her breath, feeling a deep pain on her side at each breath she took. She holds her middle, and with care slides to the floor, sitting on the mossy floor of the woods.

She closes her eyes and makes a mental inventory of her pains and aches. Busted lip, check. Cracked rib, check. Ringing in her hears, from the slaps he gave her, check. Burn marks on her neck, from where he tried to strangle her into submission, also check. Deep burning on her…

_Ah Crap,_ she thinks, and for the first time since her kidnapping, she brings her head down and let the tears fall freely, without any attempt to silence them or stop them.

She thinks of the team: Gibbs probably is frantic, barking at everyone. She imagines him pacing up and down in the bullpen shouting at the agents, asking for answers that they do not have yet. Tony is probably trying to hide his concern cracking jokes and, at the same time, trying to support McGee in his pain. She knows that Tony is not the insensitive jerk he sometimes appears to be, he just is not comfortable showing how much he cares. _He probably came from an abusive family_, she wonders. She thinks about Ziva, brave and beautiful Ziva, always threatening Tony with her deadly paperclips, but still looking at him with lingering desire and lust, trying to hide the depth of her feelings through a harder shell. And McGee_, ohh McGee._ Her sobs become louder, and her despair is without end.

They've met by chance; the first time they made love was more about lust and pain than seduction or love. He had met her when she was at her lower than low point. Later on, when they consciously decided to try again, they took baby steps towards something that they were completely terrified of voicing out loud. They found something so rare and so pure, that each sidestepped the subject each time they even thought about it. He wasn't worried or disgusted by her scars. She wasn't worried or bored by his incessant computer speak, and his online gaming and his little ticks.

Whenever he held her, touched her and looked at her body, he did not look at the scars on it, but he saw _her_, and that made him even more precious to her, as only her own family had ever been able to do that.

And whenever they made love, it wasn't just mechanics between two bodies, it was… she remembers the last time they were together, how he held her and how he looked in her eyes when they… her sobbing is heartbreaking.

Now _he_ soiled her.

Tim will never look at her the same way again.

She cries herself to sleep.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Joy dreams that she is back in Montana, in her parents' house. This time it is her adult self, but she is still in the past, as that awful pink wallpaper on her bedroom, which she shared with Hope and Grace, had been ripped off during their college years. She walks through the house barefoot, silently, looking at the details her memory brought up out of her mind. She goes to the kitchen, where either her mother or father were always cooking or laughing with the big family, and delicately touches an aviator leather jacket that is hanging from the hook behind the door.

She holds it against her nose, and she smiles. Her father's jacket still had his perfume and aftershave scent lingering in the old leather. She looks through the backyard door, and in the distance she sees a man standing by the river.

His figure is familiar, with wide shoulders barely restrained by a cowboy shirt, and blue jeans. She keeps looking at him, she opens the door and slowly starts to approach him. He is quite tall, with a powerful figure used to hard work and hardships. He has his back to her, and his hands are resting on his hips. He is looking at the movement of the barley, which curves and dances under the wind blowing on.

She finally stands by his side, and looks up, trying to see his features, but his face is against the summer sun, and his blond hair, almost white is flowing around his face, obscuring his features.

"Who are you?"

He turns to her, and studies her face for a second, and says with a firm and powerful voice, "he is coming, run."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

She is startled awake.

The sun had started to set, and the chill factor in the wind had increased. Her skin is covered with goose bumps, and she can feel her chin chattering with cold. Her clothes definitely were not appropriate for the cooling temperatures, but as long as she had been moving, she hadn't felt cold. Now, she is starting to freeze.

She gingerly gets up, and her muscles are sore and stiff. She leans against the tree, and slowly tries to bring feeling back to her numb legs. Once she believes she can trust them again, she starts walking. She is on a soft decline on the mountain, and she has two options, up towards the top, or down. If she went up, she would have the option of seeing the terrain better. If she went down, she would probably find a small river. Where there is water, there are trails. Where there are trails, you have people, she could ask for help. She leans over and supports her hands on her knees, and takes a minute.

_Up or down, Up or down._

She starts going down, but she feels her legs shaking and the goose bumps covering her arms and legs. She stops. She takes a step back, and the shaking stops. She frowns. She tries a couple of times more, if she goes down the slope, her legs are shaking, she can barely walk, but if she goes up the slope, her legs don't shake.

She looks down, smiles, and says out loud to no one in particular, "you are really trying to tell me something, aren't you?"

She stands up, changes direction and starts to climb the slope, going up the mountain.

Once she hits the top, she slowly starts to descent on the other side.

At the same time, Jarod slowly start to climb the slope further down, entering the same clearing she had been just some minutes before.

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	20. Cavalry on the way

_****__****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

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_**Cavalry on the way**_

In the end, they used two helicopters and the medevac flying towards Charlottesville. Ducky and Palmer were flying with the paramedic team on the medevac, and one had the NCIS team and the other the BAU. The third helicopter stayed on standby.

They landed on a small farm on the beginning of the road going up, where four police trucks were parked.

A uniformed man approached the agents as soon as they left the helicopters.

"Mark Storm, sherrif from Charlottesville," he shakes hands with Hotch and Gibbs, "as soon as I received the contact from your directors, I gathered my men and blocked the access roads here to the old Burns lodge," he starts walking and the men follow him, "I had some people asking around about your bastard, and Gloria from the supermarket identified him when she saw his picture," he shakes his head, "he bought bubble bath and underwear, female lingerie, and she commented on the nice pieces he was taking, and the guy smiled and said that he was planning a party later on," he gets to the trucks, and they see that they have three dogs in cages on the back of one of the trucks. The sheriff smiles, full of pride, "best sniffers of the county, they will find a trail even if they are miles away of the game."

"We're not hunting, Sheriff Storm, we are looking for our agent," says Gibbs, irritated at the talkative man. The sheriff, smiles, and continues, "If she is lost somewhere there," he points to the woods, "only their noses will be able to find her,"

They jump in the trucks, and start going up the mountain towards the hunting lodge.

The drive, though bumpy, was fast. The road did not have proper conservation as the hunting cabin had not been used for twenty years, since the old Burns had died of a heart attack.

After thirty minutes in the dirty road, they arrive at the cabin.

The teams get down, and see the car parked in front of the cabin. They spread out, with their guns drawn. Derek approaches the car and investigates it, and touches the hood.

"It is still warm," he says to Hotch, who nods, "he can't be far away from here," they circle the cabin. The door is open, and slowly they approach it. The NCIS team has the honor of entering the cabin first, and Ziva is the first one in, she sees the groceries on the floor, the disorganization and the things thrown on the floor, "Clear," and they slowly keep on entering. Tony and Gibbs enter after her, McGee covering the rear. Tony sees a door, broken on its hinges, further ahead, and indicates it with his head to Gibbs, who slowly approaches it. He looks down and asks silently for cover.

McGee and Tony follow him downstairs, and what they see is a macabre scene from their nightmares. The tool cupboard is broken on the floor, with tools all over the place, and the table and chairs are broken into pieces, the bed is unmade, but they can clearly see that it had been slept in before, and not so long ago. There are some spatters of blood, and other things that they'd rather not dwell now.

Ziva comes slowly down the stairs, "Hotch and the other agents have secured the perimeter, there is no one here," she looks around, "but there was," says Gibbs, approaching the wall and studying the clamp and the broken link on the floor, he looks at his agents, "she escaped, and he got mad and ransacked the place." He looks at McGee, who is staring at the bed with a desolate expression on his face. Gibbs approaches him, and slaps him, "ouch" "she escaped, focus McGee, we need to find her before he does," McGee looks around at the mess, "she did that, she broke the table and used the wood and the rope," he indicates the two things on the floor, "to bring the tool cupboard down. Once down she used the tools to set herself free," he looks at the wall, and back to the bed, "she took things with her, whatever she thought might be useful, and she carried it in the pillowcase." He points to the bare pillow, and the unmade bed.

"She really rubbed off on you, Probie," says DiNozzo, with a proud smile on his face, "she will still make a profiler out of you," McGee looks at Tony and smiles a thin smile, "as long as she lives long enough to do it, I'm fine with it."

"Agent Gibbs," Hotch calls them from upstairs, and slowly comes down the first flights of it, "the dogs picked up a trail," the agents all leave the place where their colleague had been held.

They walk out and they can hear the dogs barking excitedly, and the sheriff aides holding them off, "they picked a trail going north, not long ago," says the sheriff.

"Let's go," they release the dogs, which run into the woods.

They start following them.

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Reviews are food for my soul.


	21. Survival of the fittest

_****__****__****__****_

Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.

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_**Survival of the fittest**_

Hello mudda, Hello fadda  
Here I am at Camp Granada  
Camp is very entertaining  
They say we'll have some fun when it stops raining

_**Adam Sandler, Camp Granada lyrics**_

The pain in her side crossed the line from a mild annoyance to an unbearable throbbing, and Joy is slowly dragging her feet down the soft slope. She can see that further ahead there is some kind of clearing, where the trees thin out. Further away, she can see the valley with some cities. She's going in the direction of civilization, whether she would get there before her body gives up was a completely different matter. She stops and leans against a tree for a second, and looks attentively at the ground looking for any hunting or deer trail that might make her advance easier. She sees something further ahead that catches her attention; she stands up straighter and walks towards it.

The smell hits her first: the consistency and flies over the pile of poop indicate that the droppings were fresh, quite fresh.

_Bears_, she looks around the woods, _that's all I needed now_.

She walks around the droppings and tries to figure out through the paw prints the possible direction the bear went, so she might take the complete opposite.

She walks a couple of feet further, but a chill makes her look back and she sees a glimpse of something moving on the top of the slope that drives her to hide behind a tree.

Jarod's bright red shirt was a deep contrast to the muted tones of the forest. He is walking down the slope, studying the tracks and swinging his hunting rifle.

He is tracking her down, and he is almost on her.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The dogs are imposing a frenetic rhythm to their run through the forest, "are you sure that this is the right direction?" Hotch looks at the sheriff, who nods, "the trail is just a couple of hours old, there are two tracks, and he points to the floor, "one has small feet, probably female, and is injured, there are traces of blood in some of the footprints, the other is a male in boots. Hers is old, but he went into this direction just a couple of hours ago."

"What are the odds of finding her in the woods?" DiNozzo, almost out of breath due to their forced march in the wilderness, wants to know. The sheriff shrugs, "it truly depends on her physical condition, if she is hurt or not, and how prepared she is to deal with the woods. If she is hurt, I just hope none of the natural predators finds her first."

"Predators?" McGee looks at the sheriff, deeply concerned, "besides Jarod, we also have to worry about predators?" one of the sheriff's aides is the one who answers, "we had a program to reintroduce wolves in the area a couple of years back, which was quite successful. Unfortunately it also resulted in quite a few incidents where the wild animals approached inhabited areas and gave us scares. Let's not forget also the bear population," Gibbs stops and stares at the two men, "bears?" "We have a bear population close to 200 thousand, spread out in the area of the park," says the sheriff, "they don't usually pose any problem, staying in their own protected areas, but some lonely male bears tend to wander around, and get irritated if someone walks into their territory."

Before he could ask more about the bears, they freeze as they hear a shot. The group of agents freezes for a second, trying to identify the direction whence the shot came, and they start running when more shots are fired one after the other, then just silence.

"This way!" and the dogs and men run, hoping for the best, fearing the worst.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Joy is frozen against the bark of the tree, studying the territory around looking for a weapon, any weapon she might use to defend herself. She fishes a screwdriver from her pillowcase, which she leaves silently on the floor. She holds the screwdriver in her hands, like a knife, she knows that in a one on one fight, she would be at a terrible disadvantage, but she would also be at a terrible disadvantage if she ran, a moving target is a dead target.

He keeps on walking towards her, and she closes her eyes and tries to control her breathing, that is making a hissing sound. She holds her breath, and the hissing can still be heard. She opens her eyes and looks up, and stares straight at a honeybee colony hanging just a few feet from her head, attached to the tree trunk. She frowns, and starts to think furiously.

Jarod still has his hunting riffle in his hands, and he is smiling. He knows she's close by. "It is time to go home, Servant," he swings the riffle to his right, where he thought that he might have seen some movement behind some bushes, but he can't identify anything in the faint light shining through the trees.

There is only silence in the woods, a faint singing of birds and geese flocks flying overhead. The dead leaves covering the floor crack softly under his feet, and keeps going down. "You shouldn't have left me, we are meant to be together. You are branded as a servant, and you must serve me." He swings to the left, there is nothing there, and the shadows are playing tricks with his mind.

"I can take care of you. Things will be just like before. Just you and me." He keeps walking four or five feet, he looks to the left again, the bushes are moving softly, under the cold early winter wind, close to a tree further down, he smiles, "you can run, but you can't really hide," he walks slowly, "we are meant to be together," and takes another step.

"Only over my dead body," and he is hit by a hissing projectile that explodes on his face and clothes, he swings his gun towards where the thing came from, but he only sees a petite female body running. He points the rifle, but has to wipe the honey away from his face, and the bees are a moving mass of angry workers, furious at having their home destroyed by this human, and are attacking him mercilessly, poking their poisonous stings on every centimeter of vulnerable skin they can find. He pats the honeybees away uselessly, but they don't stop their attack.

He can feel the bite of the stings and his body starting to shut down with their poison, as he is extremely allergic to them. He roars with fury, and looks in the direction where his prey is running away, away from him. He lifts his hunting rifle; he aims and shoots at the Servant. She flies a couple of feet with the impact, falls and starts to roll down the slope, and suddenly disappears from his view.

He goes back to fight with the army of bees and sees a black shadow running towards him from his left side, and when he looks up, the only sees a mouth full of teeth and a paw full of claws coming down towards his head.

He is hit and falls to the floor. Desperate, fighting for his life, he gets the rifle and shoots several times, but the bear is angry at having his territory trespassed, and his sleep disturbed by this noisy man with his firearm.

If you arm wrestle with nature, nature always wins. That's the rule of the forest: the survival of the fittest. He died in seconds. And finally the predator became prey.

* * *

Reviews are food for my soul.

A/N: heheheh go bear! go bear!


	22. Predator's day

_****__****__****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

* * *

_**Predator's day**_

_Take me home, o mudda fadda  
__Take me home, I hate Granada  
__Don't leave me out in the forest  
__Where I might get eaten by a bear_

_**Adam Sandler, Camp Granada lyrics**_

The dogs lead them to a mountain slope further ahead, where they start barking furiously. The sheriff's aides run and restrain the dogs as soon as they hear an answering roar of an angry bear, a couple of feet down, feasting on an unidentified human body further down.

The sheriff gives a warning shot up in the air, but the bear just roars at them, and keeps on tearing the flesh and eating the insides. Gibbs gets impatient and starts shooting the bear, and as it gets wounded, it stands on its hind legs, roaring and starting to advance towards the agents. All agents draw their weapons and take down the beast.

With the bear dead, they slowly advance towards the fallen body, the sheriff stops everyone "wait," "what?" asks Gibbs, impatient, "honeybees, several of them, very nasty little buggers, go around and try to stay away from the body," the agents walk around the bear and approach the body from the side, they see the bees swarming over the dripping honey and blood of his clothes, "it's Jarod," says Hotch, who starts to look around, and when he sees the sheriff, "release the dogs, he was hunting her, she must be close," the aides release the dogs, which start running ahead barking aloud. The agents follow them down the slope, find the pillowcase at the base of a tree further down, a screwdriver fallen on the floor, but no sign of the missing agent. "Where is she?" asks Derek, looking around. They start shouting her name, "BUCHANAN" but no answer is heard.

Ziva keeps walking ahead, and sees faint depressions in the grass, "she ran this way," she keeps walking, and Tony and McGee follow her, they get further down, and the slope ends on a very inclined ravine and a cliff, where you can see the valley further down, with a lake immediately under the rocky border. Tony looks at Ziva, "you don't think…" they rush to the border of the cliff and look down.

"BUCHANAN!" "JOY!"

McGee rushes to where they are standing and looks down, and his heart feels like it has been broken into tiny little pieces. Down in the water, floating belly down, is his partner, unmoving.

Tony and Ziva stop McGee from jumping into the water, "you would just hurt yourself, man," says Tony, and the other agents get to the border of the ravine to study the situation. Hotch immediately contacts the medevac by radio, and requests them to meet them down in the small clearing on the other side of the steep ravine. Derek studies the cliff, and the drop, looks at Hotch and "I can do it," "Morgan, you don't have to," says Hotch, but Derek is adamant, "I used to dive at University, it is the same height of the jumps we did back there," he looks at McGee, gets his jacket and his holster off, gives the items to Gibbs who is watching them, walks to the edge of the rocky cliffs, and makes a perfect dive to the waters down bellow.

The shock is intense, as the waters are freezing cold, he swims towards the unmoving woman, turns her and slowly swims ashore. Once on dry land, he starts studying her condition, and doing CPR, "come on, come on," compressions, compressions, breath.

He looks down her side, she has a bullet wound on her hip, which is bleeding profusely, but right now his main concern is to make her breathe.

Compression, Compression, Compression, breath.

Compression, Compression, Compression, breath.

Compression, Compression, Compression, breath.

_**Come on!**_

She starts coughing but doesn't regain consciousness, as soon as the sound of the blades of the medevac is heard. They land on a clearing a few meters away, and the doctors and paramedics rush to the hurt woman, and immediately take over the CPR. Derek looks up the ravine, and signs to Hotch, indicating that, at least for now, she is alive. Barely.

They give him a thermal blanket, stabilize her and wrap her in another thermal blanket, and move towards the medevac. They are in the air within minutes, towards the nearest ER hospital in Charlottesville.

Up in the ravine, the agents watched, impotent, the drama unfolding down there, waiting for a sign, any sign that their search wasn't in vain. That they didn't get there too late.

McGee is looking fixedly at the paramedics' movement, and he is barely holding it together. There is an expression of utter despair on his face, as he realized that they rushed so much, and they might have failed. He had promised Maggie Buchanan that they would bring her back, and now…

He looks up when he feels a hand squeezing his shoulder, he sees that it's Gibbs' hand. He's studying McGee, trying to check how he is, "she's a fighter, she won't go that easily," and both men look down at the clearing, and watch the paramedics move the stabilized body towards the helicopter.

They look back to Derek, who is now sitting alone, by himself on the clearing, and he makes an Ok sign with his hand, indicating that, at least at that moment, she was alive.

There is a collective sigh of relief among the agents, and they start to move away from the cliff so they can collect Derek and close the perimeter around the crime scene. They look back and see Reid standing by the corpse, studying the wounds of the mauled body.

Gibbs approaches the profiler, who glances up at him and says, "I can't help thinking that it is a fitting end for him," he studies the ripped flesh, the skin all covered by bee stings and his face bloated by the fury of the army of bees that attacked him. His face is frozen forever in an expression of pain and fear, "the predator became prey, and nature won the battle."

Ziva approaches the dead man, and snarls, "it would only be fitting if we had to shoot him down, not the bear," Tony smiles at the beautiful agent, and says, "you could always use his corpse as target practice," she smiles back at him, "I like the way you think, Tony," but Gibbs has other ideas, "if anybody is going to shoot someone, it will be me," both agents sober up, "and it won't be the dead body," they gulp, "we will secure the scene, Boss," and scatter away.

Reid shakes his head at the NCIS agents, and sees Hotch approaching McGee, who is standing a few feet away looking at the pillowcase she carried with her through the forest, sending angry glances at the dead man now and again. He did not approach him though. Hotch looks at the agent and looks back to the mauled body, "Walter Weckler once said '_Revenge has no more quenching effect on emotions than salt water has on thirst_,'"McGee looks up at the profiler, "she fought until the end, and she will keep on fighting until the battle is won, but," he approaches the NCIS agent, "her fight will have been in vain, if he is able to poison you with hate and anger," McGee looks down, ashamed at himself, "she wouldn't like that to happen, not after what happened to Eric."

McGee nods in understanding, stands straight and approaches the body of the torturer of the woman he loved. He looks at the corpse, and he can't really wrap his mind around the fact that the pile of flesh and bones had been a human so cruel and evil that caused the deaths of so many innocent people, and pain to all left in his wake. His eyes move from Jarod's body to the carcass of the bear, he frowns for a moment, "Boss, what is going to happen with the bear?" Gibbs approaches him and stands by his side, "what do you mean? It is going to autopsy, we will gather the evidence and probably we will have to dispose of the body somewhere," McGee shakes his head, "I want the bear," Gibbs looks at his junior agent, confused, "what for?" McGee smiles, and points to the dead kidnapper, "I can't offer his head on a spike and his balls on the wall to Mrs. Buchanan," he turns to Gibbs, "but I can give her the fur of the bear that killed him," Gibbs smirks at McGee, "hell of a gift for the dragon lady," Reid was listening to the exchange, and is smiling as well, "she will love it, probably put it on honored display in her office at the Air Force base where she works in Nevada," Hotch is smiling as well, "it is a gift fitting to a true Buchanan," all men smile, relieved, and Gibbs puts his hand on McGee's shoulder, "let's clear the perimeter, and go to the hospital," they start moving away towards the cabin and the cars.

* * *

Reviews are food for my soul.

A/N: heheh you hang around with the clan, you start thinking like the clan as well. Go McGee!


	23. Sarah McGee's seal of approval

_****__****__****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

* * *

_**Sarah McGee's seal of approval**_

The phone rings, and Maggie Buchanan answers the phone, "Agent McGee's desk, may I help you?"

"oh," says a young feminine voice on the other side of the line, "may I speak to my brother, please?" Maggie looks at Joseph, "and who would that be?" "that would be Agent McGee, I'm Sarah McGee, Timothy's sister," Maggie sighs, and Sarah keeps talking, "I haven't heard from him in a while, and I had a terrible nightmare yesterday and I just wanted to hear his voice, but he's not answering his mobile phone, and … where is he?" Maggie sighs again, "dear, your brother is not in, I don't know if he had the chance of speaking with you, but he is away on a rescue operation," "rescue operation, what happened? Who are you?" Sarah is becoming frantic on the line, and Maggie tries to calm her down, "his partner, Joy Buchanan, has been kidnapped three nights ago, NCIS and FBI have been working together to arrest the bastard and rescue my daughter, I'm Maggie Buchanan, Joy's mother."

"Oh my God, Oh my God, my brother must be heartbroken, he loves her, I know he does, I've seen them together they are …." She starts crying on the phone, Maggie's heart constricts towards this young woman, flesh and blood of the brave young man her daughter loves, and Sarah continues, "is she going to be ok?" Maggie doesn't want to give false hope, "they left a couple of hours ago, and we are just waiting for any update so we can follow them with a helicopter," Maggie considers for a minute, "dear, where are you now?" "I'm at Waverly campus, but I would love to come over …" "we will do the following then, my youngest son, Matthew, will come over and pick you up, and when they give us any update you will fly with us to where they are, what do you think?" "Thanks thanks, tell him that I will be in front of the main library, Mrs. Buchanan," Maggie looks at her husband and smiles, "the name is Maggie, Sarah, or mom, you don't have to call me Mrs. Buchanan," Sarah laughs a shaky laugh, and is touched by the kindness of this stranger, "thanks," pause, "Maggie," and she disconnects.

Maggie puts the phone back to its place, and looks at her husband and silently asks for his mobile phone, "Is she joining us?" Maggie nods and starts dialing Matthew's number, "Hi Matthew, I have a task for you, just listen carefully, you will…."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Sarah was walking nervously in front of the main library of Waverly, thinking back on her brother and the woman that literally stole his heart. They had lunch a couple of weeks before, after she started bothering her brother as to why he hadn't come over for so long.

He explained that he had started a relationship with someone, and he would like to introduce her to his sister. Sarah immediately went all protective, and mentally geared all her weapons to grill this stranger who had the potential of hurting her brother. He had been hurt too much by others; she didn't want it happening again.

They agreed to have a brunch meeting in a hotel, and she was surprised when his brother arrived not with a blonde bimbo or a goth looking woman, but a petite brunette with soft curly hair, almond eyes and a firm handshake. She barely hit his shoulders, but the way his brother hovered over her indicated he was deeply invested in the relationship.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Joy Buchanan," deep brown eyes carefully studied the young woman, and Sarah fidgeted for a moment as if she was a bug under a microscope, but she straightened her spine and shook the hand offered firmly, "I'm Sarah McGee," and studied the woman likewise. From curiosity her eyes changed to mirth, and she glanced briefly to Timothy before releasing the offered hand and sitting down on the chair he had pulled out for her, which she softly thanked him for.

McGee could barely hide his enthusiasm at having his two favorite people together, and he turns to Joy, "Sarah is majoring in English, she wants to be a writer, " he says proudly, and Joy smiles, "she will certainly be a great writer," she looks at Sarah, who is still studying her, "and I'm sure you will like travelling as well," Sarah frowns, as she can't see the connection of one thing to the other, "why?" Joy smiles, "Mark Twain once wrote that _travelling is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindness_," she looks up to Sarah, "in order to write about life, you have to experience it at its fullest, and for a young woman like yourself, the best way to do it is to travel, and accumulate experiences as diverse as the people you meet along the way. That way, your writings will not be about what you think should be, but about what life around you really is, and you can represent it in words without sinning at one of those three fatal flaws," Sarah smiles and looks at Timothy, who was looking besottedly at Joy, and glances back at Sarah, "she's a psychologist, but she works as a profiler at NCIS," Sarah looks back at Joy, "you guys work together?" Joy nods, "I was assigned as his partner approximately eight months ago," pause, "what happened to Gibbs' rule 12?" Sarah looks curiously from Joy to Timothy; Joy simply smirks while Timothy fidgets, a little uncomfortable, "some rules," says Joy, "are meant to be broken," she grins wider, "and I'm not Gibbs, I have no intention to start poisoning my body with his coffee," the two McGees laugh out loud.

They have a pleasant lunch, and Sarah keeps watching the interaction between then. Timothy is quite enthusiastic about her skills as a profiler, and he tells her about many cases she helped solve during these last months, but Joy always interrupts here and there and pinpoints occasions where his investigation or computer skills were essential to closing said case. Sarah immediately notices that she doesn't allow her brother to belittle himself, and instead sees him as important on the team as she is, and she constantly praises this and that, which results in a faint blush on her brother.

Initially she imagined that she was just saying that to inflate her brother's ego, but she studied the little touches and looks the two exchanged, and how his hand would seek hers and fingers would automatically link as a natural thing, and the way he would slide his thumb over the palm of her hand distractedly, talking about something to Sarah who would glance at Joy and she would be staring at Tim's hand, with a zoned out expression on her face and a faint blush covering her neck and face. She caught Sarah staring at her and her blush became even brighter, and she quickly took her hand out of Tim's grip.

Sarah smiled at her, and if Joy could blush even more, she would have. Sarah looks at Tim and he seems to have caught up with what is happening and he is smiling back at Joy like the cat who ate the canary, and she is blushing even more under his gaze, "oh, I … I" she stutters a little, "I'm going to the ladies' room" and does a quick retreat, under the careful gaze of the two McGees.

Sarah looks at her brother, and sees a very satisfied male smile on his face, a look she hadn't seen in ages, while he sips his soda, so she asks him point blank, "you are sleeping with her, aren't you?" he chokes on the drink, and his eyes start to water, "what are … I mean... ah…" it is his turn to stutter, and he blushes even more brightly than Joy, "oh, well, you see…" Sarah rolls her eyes at him, "please, I'm not a child, the way you guys were looking at each other, I was almost suggesting you should get a room," Tim looks down at his plate, and tries to gather his thoughts, "yes, we are together," he looks at Sarah, "she is a complex bundle of contradictions and strengths, she is a great agent, but at the same time fragile in other aspects, she…" he pauses, and shakes his head, and Sarah continues, "you really like her, don't you?" he looks in the direction where she went, and sighs, "yeah, we are tiptoeing around each other, we don't really talk about what is going on, we just are sharing our days, both working hours and off hours, she doesn't ask for more, and any sign I might give that I'm needing some space she disappears for a few days, I just…." He looks down at this hand, where he is shredding a paper napkin, "I just don't know where things are, but one thing is clear in my mind," he looks at Sarah, "I want her, in my life, in my bed, in my future," he looks at Joy who is walking in their direction, "I just don't know if she wants the same thing," Sarah pats her brother's hand, "why don't you just ask her? You might be surprised with the answer."

Joy arrives back in their table and takes her seat, and immediately senses the change in the mood, "anything wrong?" both McGees shake their heads, _nooooo_, she looks at Tim who gives her his hand, so she might hold it, and she immediately clasps her hand in his, and silently asks with her eyes, _you ok?_ He smiles, _sure_, she studies him for a moment, and nods.

"I requested the dessert menu, I've been told they have amazing French pastries here," Sarah smiles, "anything in particular?" Joy grins, "I'm asking for their _petit gateau au chocolat_, it is a sin, moist dark chocolate with the most fantastic ice cream," she closes her eyes and moans, "it is called in some circles _sin au chocolat_" Sarah smiles, "I like that," she looks at McGee, who is staring at Joy with a hungry expression, "chocolate, uhm?" she looks at him and grins naughtily, "chocolate makes me happy," he looks down at his table, and mutters, "I bet it does, I have to remember that," both woman burst laughing, Sarah snickers at her brother, "it's a woman thing, you men will never understand," the two women look at each other and smile.

Later on, while the two women were moaning delighted over their chocolate pastries, Timothy was just watching while he ate his delicate _mille fleuille_ cake, Sarah saw Joy distractedly get a paper napkin and wipe the corner of Tim's mouth, where some sugar and cream was, and they smiled shyly at each other, and kept on eating. At that moment, Sarah was ok with these two together.

"Excuse me, ma'am, are you Sarah McGee?" Sarah is startled from her memories by a masculine voice on her left, she turns and has to look up, as a tall handsome man, in his mid twenties, is talking to her, "Yes, I'm Sarah McGee," the man smile, a full smile with perfect white teeth, contrasting against his tanned skin and deep blue eyes, and gives his hand to her, "I'm Matthew Buchanan, at your service, Ma'am."

They shake hands, and that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

* * *

Reviews make me deliriously happy.

A/N: cookie points for those who guess correctly what Joy was thinking during lunch...


	24. Clan Gathering

_****__****__****__**Set sometime in Season 7. No copyright infringement intended. Not making any money out of it. Etc Etc.**_

* * *

_**Clan gathering**_

As soon as Matthew arrives with Sarah, he senses the change in the atmosphere. Director Vance is speaking with his mother and father, and he approaches them, "what happened?" Director Vance turns and greets Sarah McGee with a nod, as they met before briefly, "we just received a communication from the agents, they found the hideout, the kidnapper is dead but Agent Buchanan is gravely hurt, she has been transported to the hospital in Charlottesville," Maggie approaches Sarah, "we have a helicopter out ready to take us there, are you coming with us?" She nods, "Sure, that's why I came for, ma'am," Maggie waves the formality, "I've told you already, my name is Maggie, or Mom, no ma'am, it makes me feel old," Matthew laughs, "and mom is not old, she is immortal, like the Highlanders of old," Maggie hits him on the arm, and he fakes being hurt, "respect your elders, young man, just because you are taller than me and a marine, it doesn't mean I can't give you the thrashing of your life," he smiles smartly, "yes ma'am," she turns to stare at him, "I mean, mom," Joseph decides to interfere, and grabs the arm of his wife and starts to steer her towards to the elevators, and looks back to Vance, "we will keep you informed, director," and he is followed by Sarah and Matthew.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"We have a bleeder," says a paramedic working on Joy's body, Ducky and Palmer are standing back watching the activity, they were working frenetically to stabilize her, they were giving her several units of blood to avoid hypovolemic shock, but even with the blood bags they are injecting her she was still pale and still. The paramedics had stabilized her right hand, as she had broken her wrist where the chain yanked the skin on her arm brutally during the fall. They would have to use a saw to get the metal away and treat the bruised skin underneath. Besides that, they were aware of lacerations on her face and neck, indicative of slaps, and also cuts on other parts, two suspected broken ribs, and the list went on and on.

They put her on an artificial respirator, and tried to keep her stable to reach the hospital. As soon as they landed, the team moved the agent towards the surgical wing and started to work on her failing body.

Ducky and Palmer could just watch their colleague being taken to the OR, and hope for the best. Now the waiting game would start.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Gibbs' and Hotch's team arrive at the hospital, and Ducky and Palmer are immediately bombarded by questions "have you seen her?" "Any news?" "Is she still alive?" Ducky raises his hand and asks for silence, and Gibbs helps, "HEY!" Everybody shuts up, he looks at Ducky, who thanks his friend with a nod for the intervention and starts talking, "she was taken to the OR as soon as she landed, as she had been shot," McGee lowers his head in despair, "the shot hit her in her lower abdomen on her right side, it was a clean shot, no vital organs were hit, but she bled a lot, and that was the main concern of the paramedics on the way here, to stop the bleeding and replenish the lost blood so she would survive the trip to the hospital," he looks at Gibbs, who is staring at Ducky with an intense expression on his face, "she also has a broken wrist due to the chain he used to keep her prisoner, several broken ribs, lacerations on her face and neck and other parts of her body, but our main concern now is her respiratory organs, as we have no way of knowing how long she had been in the water and the gunshot wound."

"What are her chances?" asks Hotch, looking at the other profilers and the NCIS agents, so close, yet so far, he thinks.

Ducky sighs, "it all depends if the doctors are able to stop the bleeding without causing more distress on her body," Ducky shakes his head, "her body is in such a fragile state that they were concerned about operating her to clamp the bleeding veins, but they had no choice but doing it," he looks at his fellow agents, "now we can only pray for the best."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Systolic BP of 90mmHg!"

"Tachypnea of 50 bpm"

Beep Beep Beep.

Beeeeeeeeeep.

"We're losing her, I need more blood!"

The doctors and nurses are moving frantically around the woman on the operating table.

"Bring me the crash cart," two nurses rush with the equipment requested, "adrenalin shot," another nurse obeys, "CLEAR."

The body on the bed arches as it is shocked, "increase the voltage," "CLEAR," the body arches again.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

"CLEAR."

Beeeeeeeeeeep. Beep, beep, beep, beep.

"I have a pulse," checks one nurse, and looks at the chief surgeon, who nods, "let's clamp all bleeders, and fix her up."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Tim!" McGee looks up and stands up from the chair in the waiting room, only to be hit in the chest with a crying mass of brown curls that is his sister, "Sarah, what are you doing here?" He looks up and sees Maggie and Joseph Buchanan, along with Matthew, "she called and got all worried about you and Joy," says Maggie, who shrugs, "I simply invited her to get a ride with us on the helicopter," Sarah looks up from her brother's chest, "any news yet? Is she alive?" McGee sighs, looks down at his sister, "she is in the OR, she was still alive when they took her in, now we just have to wait," he looks at the Buchanan family and sees them approaching Gibbs and Hotch to talk, and says softly only for his sister's ears, "he hurt her badly, but she escaped and in the end he was eaten by a bear," Sarah looks astonished at her brother, "a bear?" he smiles sadly, "while he was hunting her he pissed off a male brown bear, that decided that he would make an interesting appetizer," he shrugs, "good riddance, because I don't know what I would do if he was still alive," Sarah smiles, and hugs her brother tightly, "you would arrest him and make him pay for his crimes for the rest of his life, because that's what you do, you always do the right thing," McGee smiles and supports his chin on his sister's head, and stay silent for another moment.

Maggie approaches both team leaders, who stand up and get ready to be grilled by the old dragon lady. She studies them for some moments, and finally asks, "He's dead, isn't he?" Both men nod, and she smiles satisfied, "which one of you finished him?" Both men look at each other, back at Maggie, and say, "none of us," now Maggie and Joseph are confused, "then who killed him?" Reid looks up from where he is with an almost dry Derek Morgan sitting on the uncomfortable chairs of the waiting room, "a bear decided he would make a fitting lunch, and killed him, right after he shot your daughter," Maggie looks at Reid, "a bear?" she looks at Joseph, "what happened to the poor brave animal?" "we had to sacrifice him, Mrs. Buchanan," says Hotch and looks at McGee who is holding his sister in his arms, "but I believe McGee will arrange a gift for you that you will enjoy greatly," she looks back at the agent and squints her eyes, "hum," and goes to sit down close to Derek and pats his leg, "thanks, young man," He smiles at her, "you're welcome, Mrs. Buchanan, but she would have done the same for me," she nods, "yes she would."

Matthew is looking at the pretty brunette being held in McGee's arms, and glances back at Gibbs and Hotch, "What now? What do we do?" Joseph looks at the bone tired agents, all showing signs of fatigue and directs them to sit down on the uncomfortable chairs of the waiting room, "we wait, and hope for the best."

They sit down, and watch the hours tick away.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Two hours later, Faith arrives with her husband and children, and the children run towards their grandparents, "grandma, grandpa!" and receive tight hugs and kisses. Faith hugs Matthew, and looks at the other agents, with her husband silently supporting her on her side, "any news?"

Tony shakes his head, "she is still in the OR," she nods, and sits in another chair with her husband, James, who looks at Joseph and says, "Hope is on her way, she just went to collect Temperance in Quantico, she will be here in one hour," Joseph nods and plays with the hair of little five year old Daniel, who sits down in the middle of the room and starts to play with his fire truck.

Stephanie approaches the NCIS agents sitting on a corner, and looks shyly at Gibbs and McGee, Tony and Ziva, "which one of you is Tim?" McGee looks around, and leans over to her, "I'm Tim," he looks at the pale teenager with bright violet eyes and long black hair, a carbon copy of Faith and of a much younger Maggie, and he sees that her eyes are full of tears, "I'm so sorry, it is all my fault, if she hadn't promised to make my cake, if I wasn't that selfish he wouldn't have grabbed her, I'm so sorry," and she starts crying, deep sobs shaking her shoulders, "hey," he grabs her hand, stands and pulls her into his arms, and she keeps on crying, repeating, "it's my fault, it's my fault," he hugs her to him and says firmly "it is not your fault, it is no one's fault," she hiccups, and looks up at him, with tears running down her pale face, "she was distracted because of me, I told her that we had to train together for my Glee club audition, that's why she didn't see him," he lifts her by her chin, "he was a psychopath, even if she was at the top of her game, he would have found a way to hurt her," he shakes his head at the guilt the twelve year old is carrying, "it is not your fault," she sniffs, and nods at him. Faith approaches Tim and Steffy, "I told her already it wasn't her fault, but she insisted that you would still blame her," she opens her arms, and her daughter jumps and hugs her mother firmly, she looks up at Tim and mouths silently, Thanks.

Johnny's wife, Lisa, arrives with his children, fifteen year old Jacob and four year old Priscilla, and they greet everyone and settle down for waiting. Shortly Temperance and Hope arrive, bringing with them several cartons with pastries and thermos with coffee, which are given out for all waiting in the now crowded waiting room.

The doctors and nurses walk by the waiting room and just see a tight family unit, waiting and praying for the best, and fearing the worst.

Gibbs is sitting on a corner, just watching the younger children playing on the floor. He looks at the young girl, Priscilla, playing with a small doll and a plastic horse. His heart constricts when he thinks about his own daughter, dead so many years. He looks around the room, and sees the clan Buchanan everywhere, Matthew talking softly to a shy smiling Sarah McGee, Hope and Ziva talking and looking at Tony, who is hiding behind Maggie, who is giving him an earful about… God knows what, McGee talking with Reid and Hotch, and suddenly a hand is before him, offering a fresh cup of boiling hot coffee, he looks up and sees that it is Joseph, "I thought you were in need of a refill," he accepts the coffee and says thanks, takes a sip and, "ohhhh, good coffee," he looks questioningly at Joseph, who shrugs.

"Maggie hates the machine made, and hospital coffee is fit for the sink only, so we always carry our own stash," he points to Hope and Faith's bags in the corner of the waiting room, where three or four thermos flasks can be seen peeking out.

Gibbs smiles and enjoys his coffee in silence, and keeps on watching the kids. Reverend Joseph Buchanan watches this man, that inspires such reverence and respect in his coworkers, and who also has the honor of working with his daughter. Gibbs feels the eyes of the Reverend, and looks back at him, and the two men study each other for a moment. Gibbs supports his cup of coffee on his knee, and look back at the children, "you are a lucky man, Joseph Buchanan," he glances at the reverend, and looks back at the children, "a very lucky man," Joseph looks around the room, and studies his family members gathered in that room, three different generations, all worried about one of their own, but he smiles, as he notices the glances full of veiled concern towards the fearless leader, from his coworkers, "I know," he looks back at Gibbs, "but so are you," Gibbs turns to stare at the reverend, who smiles, "I've learnt a long time ago that, there are two types of family, the one you are born to, that you don't have any say about, as it is decided before you are born," he smiles, "and the one you gather along the way," he stares Gibbs in the eye, and continues, "just because they are not your flesh and blood it doesn't necessarily mean that they care any less. They are waiting for just one word, one gesture, to show their appreciation towards you. It is only up to you," he looks at the children, "hey, Priscilla, come here," the little girl stands up and walks up to her grandfather, "hi, gramps," she says and smiles, Joseph smiles and plays with her hair, "I want to meet gramps' friend," he looks to Gibbs, "this is Mr. Gibbs," she smiles shyly at Gibbs, "hi Mr. Gwibbs," Gibbs smiles at the sweet child, "what do you have there?" and points to the doll and the plastic pony, and the girl goes to Gibbs and stands before him, supporting the doll and the pony on his thighs, "this is Lily," she leans over to whisper, "she's a princess, but that's a secret, because no one must know," and she points at the plastic pony, "this is Gale, her horsie, because he is as fast as the wind," Gibbs laughs at the imagination of the innocent child, and plays with her hair, "I'm sure he is," and she keeps on playing, and Gibbs' look crosses with Joseph's and he looks down at the child, as if saying, _you can have a family like this, you just have to let them in._

Joseph puts a hand on Gibbs' shoulder, squeezes for a second and stands up, at the exact moment that a tired looking doctor walks out of the OR towards the waiting room.

Everyone stands up, and even the kids can sense something is going on and get quiet.

The doctor has green scrubs streaked with blood, as he didn't have the time to change before going to talk to the family, he's bone tired after several hours in the OR. He looks around the waiting room, "family of Joy Buchanan," and is so surprised when everyone in the waiting room stands up, he even takes a step back.

An old lady with keen eyes approaches him, and stands right before him, with a tall man with graying hair, with eyes full of concern, "how is my daughter?"

He scratches his head, and starts, "her status is the following…"

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Reviews are food for my soul.

a/n: I wonder if Joseph was able to stick in Gibbs' thick skull that he already has a family.


	25. First 24 hours

**_First 24 hours_**

"We did our best to stop the bleeding, she was shot in the lower abdomen. She was lucky, the shot missed all major organs, however it did nick a vein that caused a severe bleeding that was our main concern," he looks around, deadly serious, "we lost her once on the table, but we were able to bring her back, but added to the time she was submerged and the time she had no pulse, we have no way of knowing what after effects she might have," he takes a deep breath, "besides that, she has a broken wrist from the chain on her arm, several lacerations on her face, chest and neck, consistent with beatings, two cracked ribs, one that nicked one of her lungs and a multitude of scratches. She is right now in an induced medical coma, as her body needs the rest to heal. The next twenty four hours will be essential to check her future progress."

"What are her chances?" Hotch, looking at the doctor, who shakes his head, wants to know "as long as she survives these first twenty four hours, her chances increase one hundred fold, but her body is quite weak and it had suffered several successive shocks, so…" he shrugs, "we just have to wait."

"And pray," says little Priscilla, who came to stand close to the adults, and left her doll on the floor and now was holding Gibbs hand by his pinkie. She looks up at the adults who are all staring at the little child, "auntie Joy always said that , when there's nothing else to do, you have to pray."

Joseph smiles at his grandchild, gets down on his knees and opens his arms, and she runs to him and hugs him, hiding her face in his neck, "you are completely right," he stands up with the child in his arms, and looks around the room, "the doctors do what is possible in human hands," he nods to the doctor, "now we leave the impossible to God's hands," and takes his grandchild to her mother and deposits the child in her arms.

Maggie is not satisfied, "Can we see her?" The doctor sighs, "she is resting in post-op right now, as soon as she is taken to a room we will inform you," he looks briefly at Ducky, and signs to him that he would like to have a private talk with him. Ducky nods and follows the doctor through the doors marked _authorized person__ne__l__ only_.

The agents and the family sit down again, waiting until she is transferred to a room. McGee sits down and rubs his face with his hands, he lowers then and looks at them, they are shaking a little. Reid sits down beside him for a moment, and McGee looks at this man who, even for a short while, had Joy in his grasp and left her go, "she's a fighter," Reid says, looking at his own hands, and he looks up at McGee, "and also an extraordinary woman, don't make the same mistake I made, don't let her get away," McGee smiles at the profiler, all past grievances forgotten, "I'm not planning to." They smile and shake hands.

Matthew sat down slowly beside Sarah McGee, who was fidgeting nervouslyin her seat. "Have you met my sister?" he asks, just to start a conversation, Sarah smiles, "yes, we had lunch once with Tim and a couple of times just the two of us," Matthew nods, desperate to find something else to talk about with her, "she talks a lot about you guys," he looks at the beautiful girl, "really? Has she ever mentioned me?" Sarah smiles, "she might have mentioned an episode with frogs and a rocket…" Matthew frowns, trying to remember said incident, and his eyes get huge, "she told you that…" Sarah's smile get bigger, "tell me, why did you think that frogs were the ideal animals to colonize the moon?" Matthew laughs and looks at the beautiful eyes of the girl, _not a girl, woman you idiot,_ before him, and feels like he is diving into a deep pool and starting an amazing journey, "I have no idea." They grin at each other shyly.

The incipient courtship was not missed by two pairs of keen eyes, "It seems we will be adding another McGee to our family?" says Hope, and she grins towards Temperance, who is eating a donut with gusto, licking her fingers, as she hadn't eaten anything since Hope called, telling to get ready and packed to travel somewhere on short notice, "wanna bet how long it takes until they get together in the sack?" Hope looks at her younger sister, horrified, "why would I be doing something that gross? Betting about my brother getting laid?" both sisters snicker, "twenty bucks he will have her by the end of the week," Temperance looks at the two sitting and how they lean towards each other, "twenty bucks he will have her in less than twenty four hours," Hope's mouth is a perfect O, "I'm shocked," she grins and they shake hands, "deal," "May I ask what are you two ladies talking about?" they jump, scared, and look at their father with guilty expressions on their faces. "Nothing, dad," they say. Their father looks at one, then at the other, and none meets his gaze. He looks across the room at Matthew talking with Sarah, "Ok, I bet fifty bucks she will be his date for our Christmas gathering," both girls look with shocked expressions on their faces, "DAD!"

Ducky comes out of the restricted area and walks directly to Gibbs, "Jethro, mind coming with me to the cafeteria, I believe I'm in need of a little bit of tea," and without waiting for his reply, steers him down the corridor towards the elevators.

Once inside one, as soon as the doors close Ducky engages the brakes and looks at Gibbs, "what's wrong?" Ducky takes a moment and finally, "there were also other injuries that the good doctor did not wish to say to a room full of children," Gibbs takes a step back, leans against the door, and stares down at Ducky, silently ordering him to keep going, "they ran a rape kit, as some of the bruises were consistent with said abuse," Ducky sighs, "she was raped, brutally, there is some tearing on the internal tissue, that they were able to fix, and several bite marks on her breasts, they already started a course of antibiotics, the morning-after pill and they are also running tests for all STDs known to man," Gibbs stares down at Ducky, "any chance she might get pregnant?" Ducky shakes his head, "the chances are slim, as she is under heavy hormonal treatments due to her endometriosis, but still, it is better to be safe than sorry," Gibbs is concerned about another thing, "is the doctor going to tell the family?" Ducky looks uncertain for once, "he wanted to know from me who would be taking care of her, once she gets better, as he is more concerned about the psychological after effects than the physical ones, and I can't blame him." Gibbs thinks about the family they had the opportunity to meet and see in action, and he has no doubts in his mind, "her family will take care of her, if she is going to be nursed by anyone it will be by her parents, they will take her home as soon as she is fit for travelling," Ducky nods, "that's what I imagine as well, but if they take her with them, will she come back to us?" he voices his fear, and shakes his head, "they will protect her something fierce, and I don't know if they will let her go easily to a place where she might be put in danger again."

Gibbs stands straight again, and disengages the brakes of the elevator, and they hear a ping as the doors open, "that's her decision to make, not theirs."

Outside the doors is Ziva, she looks at the two men, "she was taken to a room, they will let us see her now."

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Reviews make my day a brighter day, so please leave at least a line. thanks.

a/n: Today I went to a Michael W Smith show... He rocks! I will try to add some of his songs to the next stories... hehehe


	26. Home

**_Home_**

_Some people live in a house on the hill  
And wish they were some place else  
There's nobody there  
When the evening is still  
Secrets with no one to tell_

Even now when I'm alone  
I've always known with you  
I am home

_For me it's a glance and the smile on your face the touch of your hands,  
And an honest embrace  
For where I lay it's you I keep,  
This changing world I fall asleep  
With you all I know is I'm coming home,  
Coming home_

**_Vanessa Carlton - Home_**

As soon as they put Joy in a room, there was a small discussion about who should be the first one in, as the doctors had restricted them to only one visitor each time, with visits of only five minutes.

Maggie and Joseph wanted to go in first, and the other kids were trying to organize the order after them. McGee and his sister were sitting with Tony and Ziva, just watching the family in their organized chaos. "Are they always like that?" she wants to know from the protection of her brother's arms "Noisy? Chaotic? Demanding and extremely overbearing?" says McGee with a smile, "as far as Joy says, they are always like that," he looks down at his sister, "and she wouldn't change a thing about any of them." While the siblings are talking, Hope glances at them and frowns, then she walks towards McGee and stands before him. "Hi, Hope," she looks at her family, "Hey! We should let him go first," and that shuts the family down. McGee shakes his head, "I'm ok, I can wait," but Hope is adamant, she grabs his arms and forces him to stand up and looks at her parents, "mooooommmm!" and she folds her arms at her parents, who look at each other for a second, communicating silently, then look at McGee. Maggie smiles at him, and signals that he must come to her, he obeys reluctantly, "really, I can wait," Maggie shakes her head, and marches him towards the nurse that's waiting to guide the first visitor, "he's going to see my daughter first," the nurse looks at McGee and at the old lady, who is doing a great job in intimidating him, "it is just family allowed in, ma'am." Maggie waves her hand, "he's family," the nurse shakes her head, "ma'am, it's doctor's orders." Maggie approaches him and snarls, "are you going to keep on talking or are you going to take him to see my daughter?" the male nurse gulps, and looks up at McGee. "This way, sir," McGee smiles and follows the nurse, but before he turns the corner towards the private rooms area, he looks back and sees Maggie and Joseph standing close together, and waving at him.

The nurse takes him further down in the hospital, and finally they are in a section with bedrooms in which you could see several pieces of ICU equipment, separated from the corridor by sliding glass doors. They keep walking until the last one, and he freezes when he sees her on the bed, surrounded by equipment. The nurse touches a button, and the door slides open, "sir, you have five minutes," he enters, and the door silently closes after him.

He looks at her, trying to find any stretch of skin that is not scratched or hurt, but it is hard to find one. Her right arm is in a cast, only the tips of her fingers showing, her other arm had a multitude of lines and tubes feeding her with IV solutions he barely could identify. Her breathing was being helped by a respirator, the mask covering most of her face, but not hiding her blackened eye and the scratches on her face. There were marks of fingers on her neck, not hidden by the low neck scrubs that she had been dressed in by the hospital. Several tubes come out of the neck of the scrubs, connecting her to the several machines monitoring her blood pressure, respiration output, etc, etc. Her normally tanned skin was a pasty yellow color, and he could see that they were still giving her pure blood to replenish what she had lost. His mind could barely grasp what could be hidden under the scrubs, and he leans over at the feet of her bed and grabs the metal bars at the feet of the bed, and for the first time since this whole ordeal started, lets the tears and despair run its course.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Joy is again in her eleven year old body, playing in the field of barley in the backyard of her house. She is running in the fields, just watching it dance on the wind. She lies down on the ground, and just looks up at the blue sky being touched by the grown barley, as if it is being painted even bluer by it.

A shadow blocks the sun, and she sits down and looks up, "Having fun, Joy?" She smiles, "yes, lots and lots," and she starts to run again, and her laughter fills the air, bringing a smile to the ageless Commander's face, "you will have to go home soon," "but I am home," she says, as she dances in the field, "I'm going to stay here forever and ever!" and she starts spinning, and more laughter comes from her. The Commander shakes his head, "this is not your home, you will have to come back sooner or later," "Can't I stay a little more?" "They are worried about you," "but I'm fine," she dismisses the worries of the Commander.

He looks towards the house, "when it is time, it is time," and he leaves, letting her playing in the fields of barley.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

After McGee, Maggie and Joseph went in, followed by Gibbs and Hotch, and the other agents and family members, each staying only five minutes. After their visit to the ailing agent, their optimistic faces were all restrained, as the real thing looked much more serious than what they had been told.

The sheriff drops by, and informs them that he had organized places for them to stay in a close by hotel, and after some complaining and whining from the children, they agreed to move out for some hours of rest.

Maggie went to McGee and gave him a hug, full of motherly concern, that he, after some hesitation, answered back with all his strength. She lets him go, and studies his face for a second, "you stay here, we will look after your sister, try to catch some sleep," she pats his shoulder, and calls up her children, "come Sarah, you are coming with us," and marches her clan out of the hospital.

Gibbs and Hotch looks at the old dragon lady, and smile after she left, "she would have made a great drill sergeant," says Gibbs, impressed. Hotch smiles and taps his shoulder, "let's get some rest, we will be here in the morning."

Tony and Ziva go to their teammate, "are you sure you are ok with staying on your own?" he nods, "I'm fine, they are arranging an extra camp bed so I can rest, I will see you tomorrow morning," they all leave. Ducky and Palmer walk up to him, give him some instructions on what to observe, just in case she wakes up, and leave with the rest of the team, leaving McGee with his partner. He walks back to her room and sits on the chair they had provided to him. Two nurses enter and bring with them a camp bed, that they organize close to the wall, away from the equipment, they smile at him and leave him shortly after they close the curtains. He stands up, approaches the bed, and plays with her hair for a second, as he used to do when they are in bed. Pull, stretch, curl back. He bites his soft lip, trying not to cry again. He walks back to the camp bed. He takes his shoes and his jacket off and lies down, staring at her chest going up and down with her breathing. The noise of the machines lulls him to sleep, and he dreams.

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Reviews make my day a brighter day.

a/n: Apparently Sarah has already been adopted... or absorbed in the clan... her story will come later on.


	27. Dream a little dream of me

**_Dream a little dream of me_**

Tim opens his eyes, and finds himself lying on a soft leather sofa. There is a soft handmade quilt covering him, and the muted colors indicate that it is an old one, that was handed over from generation to generation.

He moves the quilt and sits, and studies the room where he is. There is an old piano on a corner, covered with knickknacks. Besides it, there is a cello and a music stand, open at a music sheet that he can't see from where he is. The floor is littered with colorful plastic toys, close to the sofa where he is he sees a pair of masculine shoes, his size.

He stands up and looks around. One side of the room is painted with a bright orange color, making an interesting contrast to the artwork hanging from the wall. There are some pictures as well, and he slowly approaches the wall, curious about the house he finds himself in.

He finds several pictures of himself and Joy, and Jethro, in funny poses on a garden.

He looks around and sees a bookshelf full of books, and his eyes are attracted to several volumes written by Thom E Gemcity. He approaches the bookshelf and, for some reason, he doesn't recognize the titles he sees on the paperbacks.

He hears some barking and children's laughter, and he leaves the living room, towards the kitchen. It is a mess with a breakfast table with dishes half eaten and an orange juice glass overturned, with the juice silently dripping to the floor. He looks at the juice drops falling on the floor and he hears laughter again. He walks to the back door and exits to the garden, closing the door after himself.

To the left, close to a small fish pond surrounded by round stones and ornamental plants, there are two German shepherds lying on the grass, and the female one has a litter of four puppies struggling to stand up. A toddler is sitting between the dogs and has one of the puppies in her lap, and laughs every time the puppy tries to lick her face. Her laughter is full of innocence and joy, and Tim supports his back againstthe wall of the house, watching the scene. The male dog raises its head from the floor and looks at him and barks once, as if to say hello, and lays his head on the floor, where the other puppies are jumping over him and trying to chew on his ears, again.

There is a murmur to the right, he looks in that direction and he sees a hammock softly moving in the breeze, between two trees. He approaches the hammock and starts to hear a lullaby, softly sung on a female's voice he knows so well.

_They didn't have you where I come from  
Never knew the best was yet to come  
Life began when I saw your face  
And I hear your laugh like a serenade___

How long do you want to be loved  
Is forever enough, is forever enough  
How long do you want to be loved  
Is forever enough  
Cause I'm never, never giving you up

He stands besides the hammock and sees Joy softly singing to another toddler, dressed only in diapers, whose little hand is firmly holding her braided hair in her tiny fist. Joy's hand is softly moving over the back of the toddler, who is almost asleep, but stubbornly keeps opening her eyes and staring at Joy, who is dressed in a soft yellow summer dress, and when she sees Tim she smiles, and keeps on singing:

_I slip in bed when you're asleep  
To hold you close and feel your breath on me  
Tomorrow there'll be so much to do  
So tonight I'll drift in a dream with you___

How long do you want to be loved  
Is forever enough, is forever enough  
How long do you want to be loved  
Is forever enough  
Cause I'm never, never giving you up

She looks up at Tim, and says in a very masculine voice, "Time to wake up, McGee."

* * *

Reviews make my day a brighter day.

a/n: The song is by Dixie Chicks, and it is called Lullaby. It is really perfect for this scene. Just check it out.


	28. Two fathers talk

_**Two fathers talk**_

"Time to wake up, McGee."

McGee is startled awake by a hand on his shoulder. He looks up and Gibbs is hovering over him, his ever present coffee cup in his hand and another is by McGee's bedside.

"What?" His mind is still muddled with sleep, and the remnants of his dream are slowly disappearing from his mind.

Gibbs studies his junior agent for a second, and sees his confused state of mind. "Are you ok?" McGee sits and looks at Joy, and a nurse who is checking her vitals looks at him for a second, smiles, and goes back to her duties. "You look like you've just seen a ghost," says Gibbs and takes a sip of his coffee.

McGee looks out of the window, and it is already morning, and mutters, "more like the ghosts of Christmas future," he rubs his face with a tired hand, and looks at Gibbs, who sits beside him on the makeshift bed, and points to the unmoving agent, "any news?" McGee shakes his head, frustrated, but the nurse approaches the two agents, "she had a restful night, and her vitals are stable and strong, so that's good news," she smiles at the tired young man. "Why don't you take the opportunity now that your father is here and go to the hotel freshen up?" "He's not my…" McGee starts saying, but he's interrupted by Gibbs, "it is a great idea," he looks at McGee, "son," both men stare at each other for a moment, and the nurse is completely oblivious to the exchange, and keeps on talking, "we are reducing her medication, trying to bring her out of her unconscious state, we will also be watching her for any sign of respiratory distress, and we will keep you informed," she smiles at the two men and leaves.

McGee is the first to look down during the staring match, and starts playing with the lid of his coffee cup, "what is this supposed to mean?" Gibbs smirks at his coffee, and looks at the still form of his profiler and agent, "whatever you want it to mean," and sips his coffee.

McGee looks up and studies Gibbs for a moment, and smiles. The door slides open, and Joseph enters with a box with pastries, "breakfast anyone?" Both men smile at the patriarch of the Clan Buchanan. "You guys always seem to appear out of nowhere with food, why is that?" Gibbs is curious, and Joseph smiles. "You should never present yourself to God empty-handed, and if you want people to remember you," he smiles and bites on a croissant, going to stand by his daughter's bed, "well-fed people are happy people, and tend to remember you and answer your questions or your requests faster than unhappy people."

McGee starts to laugh, "that's why she insisted that we buy cakes for the Metro PD cops on our first case." Joseph smiles and nods, while he looks tenderly at his daughter and plays with her curly hair, "the best way to ensure cooperation with angry and unsatisfied cops is by their stomachs, if you figure out what they like to eat, and feed them, they will be your friends forever." Gibbs shakes his head, "hell of a strategy," "Yes," smirks Joseph.

He approaches McGee, "Why don't you go get a shower and another change of clothes, Maggie arranged something for you to change into, she is waiting for you at the hotel." McGee stands up, makes a show of smelling himself, "I'm a little bit ripe," gets his jacket, puts on his shoes, and goes to the door, "just call in case there is any change." "Don't worry, we will inform you, and anyway, everyone is coming after lunch." McGee smiles at Joseph and starts leaving, but Joseph is not done yet, "oh, Timothy," McGee stops at the door."Yes," Joseph studies McGee for some seconds, and says totally out of left field, "Matthew is a good boy, a little impulsive, but very responsible and aware of our family morals, you don't have to punch him to make the right decision, he will make it on his own, ok?" McGee looks at Joseph with a huge question mark on his face, "Uhm?" Joseph waves a hand, dismissing what he said, "just forget what I've just said, you will understand it when the time is right." McGee keeps looking at Joseph for a second, shrugs, "ok then," and leaves.

Joseph goes towards Gibbs and sits by his side, and gets another pastry from the box and start munching on it. Gibbs is staring at the Buchanan patriarch. "What was that about?" Joseph keeps munching, and frowns at some crumbs that fell on his trousers, "Matthew slept with Sarah yesterday," he says nonchalantly and start picking the up crumbs; at the same time that Gibbs chokes on his coffee and spits it away like rain.

"What?" Gibbs is astonished, "how do you know that?"

Joseph smirks and looks at Gibbs. "I'm old, not senile," he shakes his head, "it was a given as soon as I've seen those two together, and unfortunately we Buchanans we don't like waiting, we usually just jump without checking the water level in these circumstances," he says with a smile.

"Why did you let him? McGee will kill him."

"Me, how could I stop them? They are consenting adults," he shrugs, "but very short engagement periods are also quite common in our family." He looks at Gibbs, "once they are on this path, there's no stopping these young bucks." Gibbs shakes his head, "Joy's brother or not, he'll kill him anyway. If there is one person McGee is overprotective over, that's his sister."

Joseph frowns at his pastry, "but I had the pleasure of talking to the young lady McGee briefly, and she seems to be a very stubborn lady as well," he looks at Gibbs, "she seems the type of person that, as soon as she decides she wants something, she will bar no holds and leave no survivorsin her path until she get it," he smirks, "and she was looking at Matthew like he was the main course of a five course meal, he has no idea what hit him."

Joseph smiles, and rubs one hand firmly over his thigh, massaging his aching muscles. Gibbs notices the action, and becomes serious, "do you ever miss it?" Joseph looks at him, questioningly, "flying, being a colonel, having people under your command," completes Gibbs.

Joseph sits back, and stares at his daughter, and the soft movement of her breathing, "sometimes," he looks at Gibbs, "but it is all a matter of choices," he becomes lost for a moment in his memories, his eyes glazed, looking at Gibbs but not really seeing him, "I miss flying the most, the adrenalin of having the best piece of machinery the Air Force could create under the touch of your fingers, the speed and the rush of taking off and the cold sweat of landing," he looks at Gibbs, smiling again, "don't ever let any flyboy lie to you, "everybody is terrified at landing, as there are too many things that can go wrong," he gets lost in the past again, "my time in the Air Force was great, and paved my future, but I don't regret my choices and the sacrifices I've made for my family," Gibbs nods, "why did you stop flying?"

Joseph smiles, and touches his leg, "three titanium plaques, some torn ligaments and a head injury that caused night blindness, all from a crash," he shakes his head, "even after I got full health clearance, they would never let me fly again," he leans his head forward and studies his hands, "but it was the right time and the right moment, we had already adopted Matthew, and then Hope's and Grace's parents died shortly after my crash, and here I was, recovering from my wounds, and my best friends' daughters were going to be sent away to God knows where," he glances at Gibbs and looks back at Joy, "I spoke to Maggie, and I told her that those kids, they shouldn't be sent away and be separated, to live with people who did not know them, so I became a stay-at-home dad, and Maggie started to accept contracts away for short periods of time," he stands up and walks to stand beside Joy's bedside, "and then Joy walked into our lives," he leans over, and speaks to his child, "our beautiful, silent and happy child," he shakes his head. "I can't tell you how many times I had to go to the principal's office because she had fought with someone in school because they had mocked her for not speaking, or because they were bullying either one of the boys or one of the girls," he plays with her hair, "Hey darling, it is time to come back home."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Joy was still playing in the barley fields, spinning round and round and laughing, "can you see me? I'm flying!"

The Commander is standing close to Joy, keeping guard over her. He lifts his wise eyes and looks towards the house, beyond the fields of barley and the river, "it is time, Joy," she stops spinning, sits down in the middle of the field and starts to play with the earth, watching it slowly drift by her fingers, "can't I stay longer? I promise I won't be a burden," he smiles down at his charge, "you are never a burden, but your family is waiting for you," she shrugs, "they are not home," she says sadly, "the house is empty, they all left me," the ageless commander smiles down at his charge, "are you sure?" She looks up at him, confused. He looks towards the house again, and she stands up, and far away, where the empty house of her memory once stood, now she can see her brothers and sisters playing in the backyard, Maggie holding baby Temperance in her hands, Hope and Grace playing tag, and Lucas and Matthew playing with their cars on the ground. Johnny is in his eternal bad boy black jeans and leather jacket, leaning against his motorcycle that was the horror of all fathers of all teenagers in Glasgow, and Faith is in her cheerleader uniform practicing for the next game.

And right in the middle of it all was her father, standing by the river and waving at her.

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Reviews make my day a brighter day.

a/n: Finally Gibbs takes action... Team Gibbs's dynamics will change after this. About Matthew and Sarah, well, that has to be told in another story.


	29. Coming home

_**Coming home**_

_1__The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. _

_2__He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. _

_3__He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. _

_4__Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. _

_5__Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. _

_6__Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever._

**_Psalm 23, King James Version_**

Joy runs towards the house. Her small feet barely touch the ground, and her little hands move the barley out of her way, so it will not hit her face.

And still she runs.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The morning wasted away without change, the family came over to check if there was any news, and they received only a negative shake of the head of the chief doctor.

Ducky looked at her vitals, checked with the resident doctor if they had anything else to do, and received the same negative answer, "it is up to her now, we are weaning her from the medication, to see if she wakes up. Only after she regains consciousness we will be able to ascertain if there was any brain damage from her near-drowning and her cardiac arrests or not."

Gibbs went out and stayed with his agents for a moment, talking with Ziva and Tony and a freshly showered McGee. They updated him on the status of the closing investigation, and informed him that all evidence had been collected and sent to NCIS for processing.

Reid, Morgan and Hotch talk quietly in the corner, trying to decide if they should stay or not. They wish they can stay, but Prentiss and JJ had already contacted them about a new case that needs their attention.

The Buchanan sisters crowded around Sarah and Matthew, in a low buzz of conversation.

The glass door hisses and Maggie enters the room, approaching Joseph, and looks at the broken shell of the vibrant woman that is her daughter and sighs. She stands by his chair and squeezes his shoulder, and gives him a small book.

He looks up at her, questioningly, and she shrugs, "I've found it in the drawer of our room, and I know you've forgotten yours in DC." He looks down at the old Holy Bible, and opens it and glides his eyes over some scriptures.

After some time, he gets his chair closer to Joy's head, and starts reading in a low voice, as he used to do when she was a child and during the time she had been in coma:

_1__ "My eyes have seen all this,  
my ears have heard and understood it. _

_2__ What you know, I also know;  
I am not inferior to you. _

_3__ But I desire to speak to the Almighty  
and to argue my case with God._

He looks up and there is no change. Her breathing is still helped by the machines, and the pulse is still the same. He continues:

_6__ Hear now my argument;  
listen to the plea of my lips. _

_7__ Will you speak wickedly on God's behalf?  
Will you speak deceitfully for him? _

_8__ Will you show him partiality?  
Will you argue the case for God? _

He looks up again, and no change. Maggie squeezes his shoulder, walks away, gets another chair and sits by his side, and leans her head on his shoulder, and closes her eyes and silently hears him reading, as he had done so many times for all their children. He puts a hand over her shoulder, kisses her white haired head and keeps on:

_10__ He would surely rebuke you  
if you secretly showed partiality. _

_11__ Would not his splendor terrify you?  
Would not the dread of him fall on you? _

_12__ Your maxims are proverbs of ashes;  
your defenses are defenses of clay. _

_13__ "Keep silent and let me speak;  
then let come to me what may. _

_14__ Why do I put myself in jeopardy  
and take my life in my hands? _

_15__ Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;  
I will surely defend my ways to his face. _

His voice chokes a little in the last verse, as it is hard to accept the possibility of his daughter dying, but if that's God's wish, so be it, but Maggie squeezes his hand and he keeps on reading on a firmer voice.

_16__ Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance,  
for no godless man would dare come before him! _

_17__ Listen carefully to my words;  
let your ears take in what I say. _

_18__ Now that I have prepared my case,  
I know I will be vindicated. _

_19__ Can anyone bring charges against me?  
If so, I will be silent and die. _

_20__ "Only grant me these two things, O God,  
and then I will not hide from you: _

_21__ Withdraw your hand far from me,  
and stop frightening me with your terrors. _

_22__ Then summon me and I will answer,  
or let me speak, and you reply. _

_23__ How many wrongs and sins have I committed?  
Show me my offense and my sin. _

And for the next hours, he kept on reading on and on.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Joy is still running, she can hear her father's voice now, the children's laughter. She stops a little to catch her breath, and looks up at the Commander, "why is it so far away?" He shrugs, "does it matter? All you have to do is run."

She laughs and starts running again.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

The day slowly went by, and the constant buzz of people stopped. Temperance had to return to Quantico, so Hope offered to take her back in her car. Wilson, Faith and her kids decided to leave as well, and offered a ride back to Washington DC to Sarah, who gladly accepted.

Matthew had no commitments back in DC, as he had come only to visit his family, but decided to return as well to check on some friends. He secretly also had planned a date, a real date, with the youngest McGee, but nobody really had to know that. So he decided to get a ride back to DC with Hope, after she drops Temperance in Quantico.

Lisa and the kids greeted Maggie and Joseph and left back to Norfolk, wishing all the best for their auntie, but the kids had school and Lisa had to go back to work.

So this way, the clan slowly left leaving behind only the NCIS agents and the remaining BAU with Joy's parents. Joseph had not left Joy's bedside the whole afternoon, and Maggie convinced him to get some rest, leaving the agents looking after Joy.

Tony stands at the feet of the bed and stares at the cast on her right hand, and the multitude of wires that she's connected to. Ziva stands silently by his side, "it is strange to see her like that," she says softly, "she always has this strong presence whenever she enters a room," she shakes her head, "it is hard to imagine that he reduced her to that," Tony shakes his head, "she's not dead, Ziva" "no, but she's silent," she plays with the bed sheet over the feet of her teammate," I'm not used to her being silent."

McGee is standing outside of the room, looking through the glass walls at Ziva and Tony in Joy's room, and he feels small hands and feminine arms hugging him from behind, "she will be ok, Tim," says Sarah, "if all she needs to wake up and get well is the support of her family," she stands by his side, her arms still surrounding his middle, "I think she has all the support in the world to get better," McGee hugs his sister, "I know, I just wish…" she smiles, "you can't erase all pain and suffering from her life, you just have to make it easier for her to live with it, each day at a time," he looks down at his sister, "when did you get so wise?" She smiles and hugs him tightly, "I have to go," she releases him and walks up to Hope and Temperance, all the time being watched by Matthew. McGee frowns a little, as he sees the wave his sister sends back to Joy's brother, and how Matthew waves back with a lovestruck expression on his face.

His musings are interrupted by Reid, "it has been an honor to work with NCIS, but we probably have to go," McGee looks at the profiler, "more monsters to catch?" Reid smiles, "that's how Joy defined our work, we were the true dragon slayers, hunting down the worst type of evil that might exist, the one that lies dormant in one man's soul." McGee nods, "that sounds like something she would say," he studies the man before him for a second, "how do you do it? Better yet, why?" McGee, looking at the profiler, wants to know.

Reid smiles a thin smile and looks back at Joy's still form in the bed, "because someone must do it, because most crimes are committed thanks to man's jealousy, pride, honor, lust, but sometimes," he looks at McGee, "sometimes it is cruelty for cruelty's sake, there is no reason, no excuse, they are just answering to a deep need of creating pain in another human being, and someone has to stop them, someone has to make a stand, and that's us, that's the work that we do."

McGee nods, "thanks," he says softly, and Reid looks at him surprised, "why?" "I don't think someone ever thanked you for the work you do, but I've talked at great length with Joy, and I've seen her working, and I know the price you guys pay for doing that, so," he looks in Reid's eyes, "thanks for keeping the monsters at bay."

Reid stays some moments speechless, and smiles "you're welcome," and both men look towards the room again.

Tony and Ziva leave the room, and Joseph goes back to his chair, by Joy's bedside. Gibbs follows him inside, "don't you think you should rest more?" Joseph shakes his head, resolute, "nahh, and besides," he smiles, "it is not always that I have such a captive audience," he points to Joy who, besides the wheezing of the machines, does not make a sound.

He opens the Bible, and starts reading again.

* * *

Reviews are good for my soul.


	30. Please God, not again

**_Please God, not again_**

"Joy," her father shouts.

"I'm coming," she shouts, and keeps running.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

_1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple._

Joseph keeps reading from Isaiah, after having read several psalms and the whole book of Job. He looks up but sees no difference, so he keeps reading.

_2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:_  
_"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;_  
_the whole earth is full of his glory."_

Gibbs is sitting in another chair, just watching the father and daughter interaction. He was amazed by the dedication of this man, towards a woman that was not even his flesh and blood, but for some reason they shared much more than he had ever seen in some families. He feels a deep unhealed pain in his heart, and wishes that he had had the same chance to have such a relationship with his own daughter.

Joseph's eyes are turned to the book in his hand, and he misses what Gibbs sees. Her left hand moved.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Dad!"

Joy is almost at the house, she can hear the children's laughter and Maggie's soft voice singing a lullaby for baby Temperance in her arms. Johnny left his spot close to his bike and was waving at her, _hurry, hurry_!

"Dad! I'm almost there!"

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Did you see that?"

"See what?" Gibbs points to her left hand, where an IV line is connected. He stands and approaches the bed, and studies her hand and lifts his eyes to her face, "she moved," Joseph stands as well and puts his hand in hers, and squeezes, "come on, baby girl, time to open those beautiful eyes for me."

He smiles when he feels her squeezing his hand back.

"Time to come home, Joy."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Joy reaches the river, and runs to the old wooden bridge her father built on a very hot summer, where the kids would sit and fish on the small river that cuts through the property's backyard.

Her small feet leave dirty footprints on wood floor, and once she is on the other side of the bridge she runs towards her father. Once she is close to him, she slows down, and looks around at the backyard, and all the family gathered there.

She finally stands before her father, and looks up and sees him smiling down at her, exactly as he smiled when they met on that day in a train station.

"Dad?"

"Time to open your eyes, Joy."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Gibbs called Ducky, as soon as the machines started beeping differently to the monotonous tune they were before. Nurses came into the room, and started to check her vitals, but during all this time her father did not let go of her hand, as he could feel her squeezing it back.

"Come on, peanut, time to open your eyes," he kept repeating, and he could see a faint movement beneath her eyelids, she was trying, good girl, but it was hard.

Ducky arrived, but did not interfere with the nurses, and stood besides Gibbs.

A faint moaning was heard, and a frown started to form on her face, as soon as she started to become aware of the pain and machines attached to her body. The nurses were a hive of activity around her, checking and rechecking her vitals and the lines connected to her body.

She moved one of her legs, folding it, and one of the nurses very quickly moved it back to rest straight on the bed again.

She blinked softly, and her father smiled, as he could see his daughter's brown eyes trying to fix on his, "welcome back, Joy."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

First came the awareness of his voice, calling and ordering her to open her eyes. Then came the beeping of machines, buzzing in their electronic rhythm. She was trying to come closer to the voice, but she suddenly felt a deep burning pain on her right side, in her lower abdomen, that forced a moan to escape before she even decided to stop it. With the pain came the rasping sound of the respirator, and the awareness of the facial mask that injected pure oxygen on her lungs, forcing her to take deep breaths to accompany the machine.

"Dad?" she tried to say, but her voice was muffled by the mask, and her throat felt like fire, as if burning coals had been dipped into it.

Her eyelids fluttered and slowly her eyesight showed her father, albeit a little fuzzy, hovering over her face, "welcome back, Joy."

She frowned, as the situation that she was in was bringing her chills and bad memories, she looked at her father, saw his tired and worried face, but no sign of any of her teammates, and felt the first tendrils of terror crippling up her spine.

_Please God, not again._

* * *

_Reviews are food for my soul._


	31. How to stop panic, marine style

_**How to stop panic, marine style**_

"What is happening?" one of the nurses wanted to know as she starts to register the accelerating of Joy's heartbeat, "her pressure is going up." The machines started to beep, and she started to twist on the bed.

Joseph looks confused, "Joy, what's wrong?" but she only looks at him with terrified eyes, and tears start rolling out of the corners of her eyes, she closes them and starts hitting her left hand as a closed fist on the bed showing her frustration and pain, "Joy?" he is totally bewildered at her actions, as she is acting as if…

"Joy?" he looks at his daughter, and he recognizes the pure terror in her eyes.

"We'll have to sedate her again," says one of the nurses, preparing a shot, but he stops her, "no!" he turns to Gibbs, "come here."

Gibbs is confused, but Joseph is adamant, and approaches him, grabs his arm and drags him to stand at Joy's bedside, in her line of vision, "the last time she woke up in a hospital, with me by her bedside and she was so deeply hurt, her whole team had been killed by Jarod's actions. She doesn't know you guys are alive; you have to convince her that you are alive and well. In her mind, he killed you, he killed her whole team again," he points to Gibbs, and talks to Joy, "Gibbs is here, Joy, and everyone is ok," but his words can't penetrate the thick fog of panic and pain.

She is still thrashing, "she's going to hurt herself, we have to sedate her again," says the nurse, with the sedation shot in her hand, ready to inject it in her IV, but Gibbs decides to take matters in his own hands, and barks "BUCHANAN, STOP THAT IMMEDIATELY," and hits her with a headslap.

She freezes immediately, and opens her eyes and tries to focus her eyes on the face of her boss. Her left hand, still attached to the IV, tries to find him, and he approaches her and squeezes her hand, firmly, "we are fine, we are all fine, and he's dead, he didn't hurt anyone but you," her struggles stop, and she blinks repeatedly, "her BP is lowering, and her heart rate is coming back to normal," the nurse's eyes move from the machinery to Gibbs, "whatever you are doing, keep doing it."

Gibbs nods, and keeps talking, "Jarod died, but not by our hand, a huge bear decided to snack on him, and killed him. Or maybe the bear was attracted by the honey that his body was covered by, that I still don't have any idea how it got there," she blinks at Gibbs, and squeezes his hand, "but I have a vague suspicion that you might have something to do with that," she closes her eyes, but doesn't let go of his hand.

Her breathing gets more regular, and she is still squeezing Gibb's hand in hers. Gibbs looks up and sees the rest of his team standing behind the glass doors, as the nurses did not let them enter the small room during her medical emergency. The BAU members are also looking at the agent, with worried expressions in their faces.

"We are all fine," he keeps repeating, and she slowly calms down, blinks and tries to focus her good eye on him, "we are all fine."

* * *

Reviews are food for my soul.


	32. Doped talk

**_Doped talk_**

The doctors still hovered over her for a while, changed her respirator mask for a nose canula and took more blood and samples for more exams. She was tired from all activity, and rested with her eyes closed, but she would open them briefly when spoken to.

They adjusted her painkiller dosage, and silently the nurses left, finally admitting the remaining of Team Gibbs inside the room. McGee entered the room with Tony and Ziva, while Gibbs and Joseph left for a some minutes to talk with the BAU team outside.

McGee went to her bedside immediately, and ran his hand softly over her head, playing with her curls, she opened her eyes and studied him for a moment and closed her eyes again, tiredly.

Tony and Ziva approach the bed, and Ziva gets Joy's hand delicately in her own, trying not to disturb the IV lines in it.

"How do you feel?"

She opens her eyes and glances at them for a moment, and in a raspy voice answers, "like I've been shot, Tony."

Tony smiles chagrined, "yeah, but I bet they gave you all the good stuff."

"Yeah, they doped me good."

There is a moment of uncomfortable silence, as the agents don't know what to say. Joy starts to silently cry, tears slowly falling from her eyes, leaving tracks on her face. Ziva is worried, "are you in pain? do you want us to call a nurse?"

Joy shakes her head and grasps Ziva's hand firmly.

"No," she stays in silence for a moment, studying the two agents, "what the hell is wrong with you Dinozzo?

They are confused, "excuse me?

"Don't wait for a better time, a simpler time," she says, silently crying, "there will always be someone against you two together, so simply don't wait."

"Hey, that's not like that…"

"Bullshit." She mutters under her breath.

"You love each other, you should get married, make babies while you still can."

She is still crying, and keeps talking in a soft whisper, "life is fragile, so fragile, and sometimes the moment is past, and one of you is gone, and you have to live with the regret of having missed something extraordinary, just because you were afraid, of the what ifs… don't do that."

She looks at Tony, "believe me, you don't want to live with this regret,"

"But the job, the rules," Ziva still tries to justify herself.

"Screw the job, screw the rules," she looks firmly at him, "screw even Gibbs if he's what's stopping you," she takes a deep breath, "your life is not the job, at least it should not be. You just spend a big part of your day there, but it should not be what brings you happiness. Don't wait."

"Ziva," she squeezes Ziva's hand, and Ziva is looking at her with tears that she stubbornly refuses to let fall, "you lost so much, you deserve a little bit of happiness," Ziva's tears can't be contained anymore, "don't let anyone tell you otherwise," she glances at Tony, and he looks back at her, "if your heart tells you that he's the one, don't wait," both women are crying now, "don't wait," Ziva tries to dry her face, and Tony puts his hand over her shoulders and brings her to his chest, in one move that he would never had dared to do before, "don't wait."

Tony hugs Ziva to his chest, as she silently cries, and he looks down at his hurt teammate, and why not, friend, "we won't," she smiles between her tears, and nods. McGee is just watching both his colleagues and friends decide then and there to do something about their relationship.

The door hisses open, and the three agents from the BAU enter, followed by Joy's parents, Gibbs and Ducky and Palmer. Gibbs's eyebrows rise a little looking at two hugging agents, but he can sense the emotional turmoil in the room, and he can see the tears in the eyes of his agents, so he doesn't say anything yet.

Reid, Morgan and Hotch approach the bedside, and Joy turns to look at them. Reid is the first to speak, "you look better than the last time we saw you," she looks at him for some moments, and "what the hell happened to your hair," he stops, and self-consciously touches his messy hair, "nothing, it is exactly like it has always been, "exactly."

She turns to Morgan, "Derek, take him to Garcia and let her force him to get a haircut," she looks back at Reid, "no chick likes oil slicked messy hair, Reid," the agents laugh, and the mood lifts a little, "nobody has ever complained before," he says with a smile, "because they are all terrified to tell you what they think, but I'm doped," she wiggles her eyebrows, "so I can say whatever I want" he laughs.

Joy looks at Derek, "hey Derek," Derek comes closer to her bed, but doesn't touch anything as they are standing by her shot side and her right arm is in a cast.

"hey babygirl, you gave us a scare."

"I've scared myself as well," she studies Derek, "have you got your head out of your ass and are you shagging Garcia?"

Derek is struck speechless, "what?"

"Come on, you know what I'm talking about," she glances at Reid and Hotch, who can barely contain their mirth, "she carried a torch for you for what?" she frowns her forehead thinking, "six, seven, no… eight years, and all the time you paraded your long line of conquests and she still had to be her happy little perky self," she shakes her head, slowly so as not to mess with the nose canula, "why don't you be a man and ask the blonde tech out?"

He scratches his head, glances at Hotch who is smirking at him, "I don't want to spoil our friendship," and Joy snorts and calls out, "Mom,"

"yes dear," Maggie approaches the feet of the bed.

"you are right mom, you were always right, men are dorks."

Everyone laughs, as Joy's doped self is talking exactly like Maggie, "I know, dear, I know." She looks at Derek, and shakes her head, "men sometimes require that the woman take the initiative, and when we do that, they are still a little bit groggy even after the wedding ceremony, and still have no idea how they got there," everybody laugh.

"ok, ok," Derek concedes, "I'll think about it," but Joy is not satisfied, "don't just think, do something!" he smiles, taps Reid's back and say their goodbyes, leaving only Hotch behind.

Hotch comes closer to the head of the bed, and studies Joy as carefully as she is studying him, "hey," "hey," she frowns at him, "you look older," Hotch smiles, "well, it has been five years," she sighs, "yeah."

"Thanks for helping out in the search for me."

He smiles, "anytime, Joy, anytime," they smile at each other, but Joy sobers a little.

"have you heard from Gideon?"

Hotch also gets serious, as he thinks about their mentor and friend who left the BAU abruptly after a terrible case, where the woman he loved was brutally killed, "no, but I know he is fine."

Joy smiled at Hotch, "he sent me a postcard,"

"he did?"

"yep" She smiled, "he said that the hills are alive with the sound of music, and the mountains talk to him every morning as he wakes up."

Hotch shakes his head, smiling, "Austria, uhm?" she nods.

"When the time is right, he will come back."

She sighs, "I know."

Hotch studies his former agent for another moment, "you will take care of yourself, won't you?"

She smiles, "Mom will kill me if I don't," and Maggie huffs and mutters, "She'd better be careful or I might."

He nods at her, and leaves the room, leaving only her parents, Gibbs and the team. Maggie and Joseph take the side of the bed where the BAU were, on her right.

Maggie starts fussing about her bedsheets and blankets, "are you cold, you look cold, do you need more blankets? I will ask for more blankets, NURSE," she shouts, but Joseph stops Maggie hovering, and hugs her, "if she needs more blankets, she will ask, Maggie."

He looks down at his beloved daughter, "how are you doing?"

Joy takes her sweet time to respond, as she closes her eyes and sighs. A few moments later, "there is a deep burning in by right side, but the discomfort is masked by the painkillers; if I breathe too deeply my chest hurts, so I probably have some ribs broken and my ears are still ringing sometimes."

Ducky nods at her description, "indeed, you have two cracked ribs, coupled with your impromptu swim, we were very concerned about any respiratory problems that might arise, that's why they put you on the respirator, but your respiration output is good, that's why they took it away already."

She smiles at Ducky, "Ducky, you are the man," and closes her eyes.

Her father looks down at her face, studying the hurts and scratches, and glances at how worried McGee studied her face as well, and decided these two needed some time to work things out, "we will go out to say goodbye to Hotch and his team, and you get some rest, ok?"

She nods, but doesn't open her eyes. Joseph silently motions to Gibbs and the rest of the team to leave with him, and McGee looks at them questioningly, Maggie just smiles towards him, "take your time, I know you have a lot to talk about," and shoos everyone out.

Before Joseph leaves though, Joy calls out at him, "Dad?" he stops at the door, "yes, peanut?" "What year did Gordon plant barley in the fields in the back of the house, in Glasgow?" she wants to knowwithout opening her eyes, and Joseph looks at Maggie, confused, "I don't know, it has been several years since he planted barley," he looks at Maggie, who says, "at least fifteen years," she shrugs.

Joy smiles without opening her yes, "ok," and stays silent. However Joseph's curiosity has been piqued, "are you going to explain why you are asking that now?"

She keeps smiling, "nope." He shrugs, and leaves the room.

Leaving McGee alone in the room, with only with the beeping of the machines and Joy's soft rasping breathing being heard.

* * *

Reviews are food for my soul.

a/n: Joy on pain killers is like Maggie: says whatever comes on her mind. I'm sure it has happened to any of you, somehow in any situation you realize you are talking exactly like your mother would. It's scary.


	33. Confessions and painkillers

**_Confessions and painkillers_**

He keeps watching her for some minutes, and she doesn't stir. He studies the scratches and feels anger slowly simmering beneath the surface when he looks again at the finger marks on her neck. It had been a close call… "you are staring, Tim," she mutters.

He startles, and sees that she hasn't opened her eyes, but there is a faint smile on her lips.

She moves her head to look at him directly, opens her good eye and studies him. He seems deeply worried, and his hair is out of the perfect grooming she is used to seeing on him, as if he passed his fingers through it several times. His eyes look older as well, as if he had seen the worst of the world and survived to tell the tale.

"Talk to me, Tim," she moves her left hand towards him and he grasps it firmly in his. He studies it for a second, moves to get a chair and sits down quite close to her bed. He looks at her, and starts talking.

"I…" his voice fails, and he tries again "these last few days, I had a lot to think about," she is studying him, and he distractedly slides his fingers over the delicate veins on her hand, "I've met your family, and I finally understood why you said that they are the reason you are alive today," she smiles, "they are really extraordinary, they really care but not only that, they don't let you give up, regardless of how hopeless the situation might seem to be."

He looks at Joy, "I've spoken to Maggie and Joseph at great length, and I think I'm better prepared to understand how and why you are who you are," he smiles, "your father seems to be under your mother's thumb, but I think in reality he only lets her think she orders him around, he really is the backbone of the household," she grins at him, "and he also had a very firm talk with me about my intentions towards you," she stays silent, but her eyebrows rise as if asking, _really?_

He looks down at their joined hands, and his smile slowly vanishes from his face, once he remembers how close he had been to not having that warm hand squeezing back at him, "I know he hurt you," he feels tears gathering in his eyes, but he closes his eyes, not letting them fall, "I know that you will need time, and patience to recover, and I'm willing to give you this time," he looks up at her, and she is studying him, without an expression on her face, "because I'm not going away, I'm not giving up on you, and…" he gulps and takes the plunge, "I'm not giving up on us, as… I love you, not only that, but I'm in love with you, and I'm not going anywhere without you," he sighs, "you were right, it is as you said to Tony, life is too precious and too fragile to keep on waiting for a better time, a better place, but if you need time, I will give it to you, so…" he shrugs, "I can wait, as long as you need me."

He wipes a tear that ran down his face and looks up at her, who is still studying him without an expression on her face. They stay in a staring match for some moments, and when she finally says something, she manages to surprise him again, "take off your shoes," "my shoes," he repeats deadpan, "and the jacket," he smiles at her, self conscious, "why?" she pats the bed beside her, and struggles to move on the bed to give him space, "I don't think the nurses will agree with that," but she has other ideas, "screw the nurses, hop in."

He obeys her, but he is still doubtful, "really Joy, I can wait," but she is adamant, "but I can't, and I'm cold, so hop in."

They settle down on the bed, he gingerly leaning under the wires and tubes connecting her to the machines, and lies on the bed on her left side, and she slowly settles her head on his shoulder.

"Are you comfortable?"

"Uhuhm,"

"Tim," she calls him softly, he looks at her, "uhm" "when I was there," he tenses, "with him, and he wanted to break me, into tiny tiny peaces, leaving only an empty shell," he is paying attention, looking down at her, and she looks up at him, "I went home," he frowns, "you went home," "I went home," she moves to get more comfortable, "he thought he would break me, but I was never really there so he could not touch me."

She closes her eyes, says softly, "I could hear the whisper of the wind in the trees in the backyard, the smells of something baking in the kitchen, and the summer sun turning the fields of barley in a liquid sea of gold moving under the will of the wind," she says with a soft smile in her face.

"That's why you asked about the fields of barley to your father?" he wants to know.

"Yep," she agrees, "but old Gordon hadn't planted barley for over fifteen years."

She frowns, certain she is forgetting something. Her mind is muddled with painkillers, and her thought processes are working very slowly.

He kisses her head.

"Sleep, you deserve it," he murmurs.

She remembers, and wriggles away a little so she can look at Timothy's face, "you do know that I love you too, don't you?"

He looks down at her, and studies her face, the broken lip, the mark of the slaps on her cheek, the marks of Jarod's fingers around neck, and her eyes, brown pools reflecting a little bit of light on the back, looking at him through a fine mist of drugged haze, but still trying to transmit the seriousness of the situation to him.

He smiles, "I know."

She settles down back with her head on his shoulder, "good, because you are supposed to know, but I can't tell you."

He frowns at that, "you can't?"

"I can't."

"Why?"

She looks back at his face, "because it is a secret," she whispers, as if someone else in the room could hear it.

"A secret," he grins again.

"Yep."

"Why are you telling me that now, if it's a secret?" There is barely contained mirth on his voice.

She shrugs and frowns at the dull pain she feels on her right side, where the bullet hit her, despite the amount of painkillers she knows is running through her body, "because I'm so doped up with painkillers that I have no idea what I'm talking about. And I probably won't remember that I told you, but it is important that you know so that, when I get better, you know what I know, but that I don't want you to know that, you know?" she looks at him with glazed eyes, and his grin gets bigger, as she is not making any sense at all.

"So, you want me to know, but when you get better, you prefer that I act as if I don't know?" He's still trying to decode the confused ramblings of her doped mind.

"Yep," she sighs. She tries to find a comfortable position, and he tightens his hold on her body. They stay silent for some minutes. "I'm cold," he moves so his body acts like a huge blanket on her side, and she grins as his body warmth starts to transfer to her, "Mom is right, men are great bed warmers, it's almost like you guys have an internal furnace," he grins against her brown curls, as he hears, "what were we talking about?" she asks, her voice almost fading with sleep.

"Nothing important. Get some sleep, you need it." She falls asleep in seconds.

He grins again, closes his eyes, and falls asleep with the woman he loves in his arms.

* * *

Reviews are food for my soul.

a/n: ohhhhhhhhh I cried the whole time I was writing this chapter. They are so cute! And finally they say out loud what they are feeling. ohhhh.


	34. A multitude of heavenly hosts

**_A multitude of heavenly hosts_**

**_Rule #11: When the job is done, walk away. (Semper Fidelis, 6.24)_**

Outside of the room, Gibbs and Ducky watch the two agents reconnect.

Ducky looks at Gibbs, who is staring at his agents with a pensive look, "you can't deny it, you have proof right before your eyes, Jethro." Jethro keeps staring at them. Ducky decides to dig even further, "they are not you and Jenny, Jethro." Gibbs turns to stare at his old friend, daring him to continue, but Ducky was never truly afraid of his friend's stares, and continues, "the circumstances are different, as she is very different from Jenny," he turns to look at the two agents sleeping peacefully, surrounded by medical equipment, "Jenny had this thirst, this desire to succeed and advance her career that surpassed her good sense, and even," he looks back at his friend, "whatever feelings she might have held for you." Gibbs looks hurt, but nods at his friend's analysis, "Joy, on the other hand, does not put her career in first place, as from a very early age she was taught that nothing is more important than her family, and those who she loves." Ducky looks at the agents, and keeps his monologue, "she might lose everything, her job, her friends, maybe even parts of her body and soul, but as long as she has her family with her," he looks at his friend, and sees the understanding blossoming in his eyes, "she can still go on, and she still can heal."

"That's the real thing, isn't it, Ducky?" Gibbs says looking at them, "whatever comes, whatever happens, as long as they have each other," he looks back at his friend, "they can take it."

The BAU agents are saying their goodbyes to the Buchanan parents,in the family room further down the hall, and Hotch slowly approaches the two men talking.

He looks at the two agents sleeping peacefully, and then looks at Gibbs and Ducky and smiles, "It was damn time." Gibbs smirks at Hotch, and shrugs, and even Ducky cracks a smile. Hotch stretches his hand towards Gibbs, "It was a pleasure working with you, Agent Gibbs," "Likewise, Agent Hotchner, but I sincerely hope that our paths never cross again," Hotch nods, and looks back at the two agents pensively.

"Gideon never had children," he starts, and both NCIS agent and M.E. look at him, "but he once told me that if he ever had a daughter, he would have liked it if she were like Joy." He shakes his head, and turns his gaze back at them, "he met her over twenty years ago, later on he was her teacher and mentor in Quantico, and carefully groomed her to be one of the best agents he ever trained, but…" he shakes his head again, "he told me that she had this gift, this innate ability to look at people, and see through them, and see their secrets, their innermost thoughts. I'm not saying that she's a psychic or anything," he smiles, "she just was simply able to talk with people, with victims, with suspects, and simply connect, and understand their suffering, because she truly understood suffering."

"That is a gift, some people may even call it a curse, but that's what makes her one of the best agents I've ever worked with," he looks at Gibbs, and says, "and I hope you truly appreciate the amazing agent you have under your command."

Gibbs smirks and says, "rule number eight," "I beg your pardon," "one of my rules, rule number eight, says _Never take anything for granted_," he looks at his two agents, "I will have to remember that."

The three men look at the sleeping couple for some seconds; Hotch turns, gives a friendly pat on Gibbs's back, shakes hands with Ducky, and walks away.

Once he gets to the group of smiling people in the family room, he calls up his team and Hotch, Morgan and Reid leave the hospital, certain that their job was done, it was time to walk away.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Meanwhile, on top of the hospital building, a strong man with blond hair watches the BAU team walk away of the hospital, enter their black SUV and leave. His deep gaze studies each person, feeling their relief and satisfaction at a job done, and at their success at finding the victim, one of their own, safe and sound.

He nods, and says a small prayer of thanks.

"Commander," a voice calls him up, and he turns and sees two strong men, dressed in jeans and plaid shirts, their shoulder length straight hair moving with the strong wind on the roof.

"Report," he says, with a voice full of authority.

The first man was deeply tanned, with wide shoulders and thick arms, however there was an aura of gentleness that radiated from him that settled the nerves of anyone who met him.

The second was shorter than the first, but not less powerful, he moved on the balls of his feet, full of nervous energy, eager to enter a fight or battle. He had a juvenile energy that brought a small smile to the ageless Commander's face.

"She is asleep with him, they reconnected and the healing process has already started," the first reports with a smile, "her family, both the Buchanan and the NCIS one, will be there to support her during this time."

"Assign more guardians to the BAU and the NCIS team, there will be forces that will be unhappy with our victory this day, and who will try to retaliate," the first one bows to the order, transfigures in his heavenly body, opens his wings and flies away, intent to obey his orders.

The second man approached the Commander, and asks "what now?" The Commander shakes his head, "we prepare for the next battle and we wait."

Both men go to stand by the edge of the building, and watch the nonstop toiling of humans, going up and down to fulfill the needs of their daily lives.

"They won't ever know what truly happened, will they?" asks the young one.

The Commander smiles at the eagerness of the young soldier, "One day, they will."

"But not today," says the young one.

"Not today," says the commander, and lift his eyes and looks at the skies covering the hospital, and the skies covering the city, and he sees the movements of hosts of angels and demons, touching but not mixing, covering the skyline, and the several lines of angels with drawn swords in their hands that surrounded the grounds of the hospital, keeping any unauthorized evil away from the fragile souls laying within its walls.

Tal looks at his second in command, Guilo, and repeats, "not today."

* * *

Reviews are food for my soul.

a/n: This has been an amazing rollercoaster to write. I have never written something so extense, and so emotionally draining.

Joy has been through many ups and downs, but there will still be repercussions of this case. Please check the aftermath of Jarod's actions and the FBI Internal Affairs Audience in **_The Gathering._**

We have been introduced to most of the clan Buchanan, but how exactly they came to be what they are today? For that, please check my story **_The I in the FBI - coming soon._**

For those curious about the celestial beings mentioned throughout the story, please check two amazing books called _THIS PRESENT DARKNESS _and _PIERCING THE DARKNESS_, by Frank E. Peretti. It is a very eye opening reading experience.

Cheers, and please review. I giggle like Joy after a ride with Gibbs everytime I get a review.


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